Branded
by OttertheMusician
Summary: After Aincrad's destruction, Kirito was kidnapped. Branded by the fairy king Oberon as a feral, Kirito has to survive being hunted by all the players in the fairy world. Unfortunately for him, it is nearly impossible to escape alone, and Akihiko Kayaba's death threat still hangs over his head. Kirito, now the greatest threat to fae-kind, must defeat Oberon to escape his new hell.
1. Taken

**AN: Alright everybody! This is my first fanfiction, so I'll be trying to figure this out when I post things, but in the meantime, I have to give credit to the person who gave me the idea about the Feral faction. The Feral idea was inspired by A Muffin with a Mission's story A Missing Sword, and I thank him for letting me use the idea. (As far as we know) Thanks again for giving me the idea to write this story! Everyone, enjoy! (I hope.)**

 **Oh, and I don't know if I need to do this, but DISCLAIMER ALERT, I don't own SAO, and I'm not Japanese. Pay attention to the first part, not the second part.**

* * *

 **Chapter One: Taken**

盗まれた - _nusumareta (stolen)_

 _POV: Kazuto Kirigaya_

Kirito's eyes opened sluggishly. He glanced around. He was in a golden cage, and he couldn't see the ground. He was chained to the floor, and had an unusual weight on his back. He closed his eyes again. There wasn't anything to be gained by having his eyes opened. He wouldn't know where he was anyway. Kirito thought back to the last moment he had been awake.

 _Crumbling, a deteriorating world. A falling castle. A man with glasses. He watched as the man dissolved alongside the castle, bits and pieces falling into the sky. A girl, smiling at him. "I promise we'll see each other again." A memory flashing by in his mind, a peaceful time in a wood with a cabin. He shouted and jumped in front of her, keeping in between her and a large disembodied hand that was trying to grab her. He screamed as it grabbed him and pulled him away from her. It burned, it hurt. He turned and reached for the girl, but she was already so far away…_

Kirito shuddered involuntarily. Something about that girl seemed familiar. He shook his head tiredly. He needed more sleep before he could even _try_ to begin to remember. He was far too tired to do anything like that. He let his head drop forward and fell into sleep.

* * *

 _POV: Sugou Nobuyuki_

Sugou Nobuyuki, the chairman of RECTO Progress' Research Division, was furious. He strode into the secret work room of his most 'trusted' employees. Of course, they were actually just the ones he paid enough to keep quiet. His loud entrance made the little chatter that was present disappear. He stood silently in the doorway, glaring at all the workers inside. He slowly walked between the computers and other personal effects until he reached the head of the division.

Sugou turned to the man and quietly spoke to him. "How is it that I tell you _very specifically_ to bring me the girl, yet you bring me a _useless_ player?" The anger was clear in his voice, and the air seemed to vibrate with it.

The head stammered, "Well, Sir, that is, well… his code was extremely similar to hers. It didn't help that he was with her for most of the two years they spent in the Sword Art project. In fact, we think that-" His words, which had been gaining confidence, faltered when he saw Sugou's dark glare.

Sugou sneered at the man. "From now on, you're out of a job. Make sure you clear everything out by next morning."

The man froze. Sugou inwardly relished the defeated look that shone clearly on the head-of-division's face.

He turned to the rest of the department. "Someone give me some information about the useless kid we nabbed."

A nervous employee walked up to him. "Sir, the player in question is named Kazuto Kirigaya, Kirito in the game. He was in the final boss raid, and according to the reports coming in from the waking players, was responsible for beating Kayaba in battle and clearing the game. It says here that he was the strongest player in the game besides Kayaba himself. He also had close relations with Yuuki Asuna."

Sugou froze. If Asuna's beauty had been tainted by this fool, he would make him pay in blood. "How close was their relationship?" He asked flatly. On the outside, he appeared calm. However, on the inside he was boiling over with rage.

"It says here that they were married in-game, according to the Cardinal System's observations." The man continued to speak, but Sugou wasn't listening any longer. _This boy, Kazuto Kirigaya, corrupted_ my _Asuna. I'll kill him._

Sugou turned around while the man was in mid-sentence and stalked out of the room. He headed for his office, for his AmuSphere. The people that saw him walking by could feel a dangerous edge rolling out from him in waves.

* * *

The only thing stopping Sugou from killing the boy as soon as he saw him was the defenseless state he was in. Well, it also helped that Sugou wanted to make him suffer for as long as possible. Sugou stood in front of the unconscious boy, planning on ways to hurt him, mentally as well as physically. He thought for several moments, and turned to leave. It'd be easier to think when he wasn't in front of the boy. He stopped by the cage's gate and glanced back at the boy. Kirito, the one man had said. Sugou's eyes narrowed to slits. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you." Sugou whispered to himself, a large smile stretching from ear-to-ear on his face.

He faced forward once again and headed to the inner reaches of the World Tree. He walked up behind yet another group of scientists, and started to ask them several questions.

"Would it be possible to add another factor within the game?"

"Could someone's appearance in the game be altered?"

"How long would the new additions take?"

Sugou logged off, satisfied with the answers he had been given. It was indeed possible to add another group of entities to the game, as well as change someone's appearance. The new features could be introduced as a large scale update, which would, on the outside, appear to serve only the purpose of adding more questing content to the game. On the inside, however, it would serve a much more sinister purpose. The entire update would disguise the game's only prisoner as an enemy.

Sugou smiled, a sickeningly evil look that made his secretary shudder when she popped into his office to tell him something. She stuttered out something about a meeting, but Sugou didn't listen. He was still thinking about his perfect plan. _Sure, you've experienced being hated, but you've always had friends by your side. This way, you will be hated by everyone. You will be isolated from everyone. Your own friends may be the ones to kill you!_ Sugou laughed harshly as the plan presented itself in his mind. The only downside to the plan was that it would take more than 3 months to put together, and that was if the programmers worked nonstop.

Sugou frowned suddenly. Of course, his plan would need the approval of the board. If it wasn't liked, he wouldn't be able to do anything about it other than release the boy and spread rumors of a legendary monster that looked human.

Actually, the three month delay wasn't all that bad. Sugou's sinister grin reappeared as the thought came to his mind. He would have plenty of time to torture the bastard for what he had done to his Asuna. He almost reached for the AmuSphere again, but stopped himself. He wouldn't do that just yet. In the meantime, he had to catch up on paperwork and sort the information from his research team, as he didn't trust anyone else to do it.

 _I'll be looking forward to seeing how you respond to being a pariah._ Sugou let out another series of loud laughs that ended in an unfortunate coughing fit. He glanced at the pile of work and sighed. Once he finished all of the large stack, he could work on presenting the idea to the board. He threw himself into the work with a drive that better suited someone five years younger.

* * *

 _POV: Asuna Yuuki_

Since the fall of Aincrad, Asuna had been working through extensive mental and physical therapy sessions. She had immediately asked to start the rehabilitation the moment she woke up. She sighed and asked the therapist for a drink of water. As the therapist made her way out of the room for the moment, Asuna started thinking about Kirito.

She hadn't seen him since the end of Sword Art Online. He had been ripped away from her by… something… that she didn't quite understand. She didn't know whether or not it was supposed to happen, didn't know if he was okay. She sighed and shook her head. Even if he _wasn't_ alright, worrying wouldn't help. She would find out if he was, but until then she needed to get stronger. _I can't help him at all if I can't even walk._

She started scanning the room, almost unconsciously looking for Kirito. She paused as she spotted a familiar bandana. She took a few hesitant, weak steps towards it before the therapist rushed back to her and started fussing at her for trying to move without the proper supervision. She assured the therapist she was fine and turned back to the room once more. The bandana was gone. She deflated a bit, unhappy that she had missed it, but happy that at least someone she knew was awake. She only knew one person that wore that bandana, virtual or not.

She made a note to talk to him next time. She looked at the room with a renewed resolve and reached for the therapist. She would find Kirito, no matter what it took. Even if he were dead, she would still find him. _I promised him._ She thought to herself. _I have to keep that promise, for both of us._ It only took two weeks for her to recover enough to leave the hospital.

* * *

It didn't take long for Asuna to find everyone. Using her father's influence, she had gathered the names of the players she wanted to see the most. She first talked to Agil, whose real name was apparently Andrew Gilbert Mills. It wasn't surprising that his name didn't sound Japanese. He didn't look it either. She organized a get-together at his place, the Dicey Cafe.

Once she was finished, she had called each of the homes of the people she wanted to meet. She invited Lisbeth, Silica, Kirito, and she had already let Klein know in person. She had everything ready, and it wasn't until she walked through the door of the cafe and saw Klein and Agil that she realized how much she had missed everyone. She smiled at them, overjoyed at the prospect of seeing Kirito again. She waved at them and made her way to their table.

Klein and Agil seemed to be having an argument about something, but stopped when Asuna came closer. "Long time no see, Klein, Agil."

The two of them smiled at her, although she could see that they were tense. She gave both of them a quizzical look as she sat down. Klein scratched his head, and looked off to the side, whistling while he did so. Agil started to polish the outside of his mug. Asuna watched them curiously as they did so, unsure what they could be hiding from her.

Finally, Asuna couldn't stand it any longer. "What has you two so excited?" Klein flinched when his eyes met her focused gaze.

"W-well, you see Asuna, the whole thing is a bit… let's just say that it's complicated and we want to have everyone here first." Asuna frowned, but let out a reluctant sounding 'OK.'

She looked around the interior of the cafe. The cafe as a whole was nice on the inside, if a bit suspicious on the outside. Due to its less than satisfactory appearance, her parents had originally decided to keep her home. Luckily for Asuna, when she mentioned that it could help her cope with the SAO incident, they gave up and let her go.

She saw pictures on the wall of Agil with the woman behind the bar. She was in several others as well. Asuna looked at Agil. "Who is that?" Asuna nodded towards the photos.

Agil twisted to see who she was talking about. He relaxed when he guessed who she was talking about. "Her? She's my wife."

Klein immediately turned to Agil with a hurt look on his face. "Not cool, dude. You didn't even tell me."

Agil shrugged. "I didn't think she was all that important to mention. She doesn't really have much to do with SAO or this party."

Klein was shocked. "Not important?! Since when have women been unimportant?!"

Agil let out a warm chuckle. Asuna smirked. "It's nice to see that you have your priorities straight for once." Klein let out a noise of protest before he gave up and hung his head.

A jingle signaled the entrance of a new patron. They turned to see the door. A girl that looked like Lisbeth with brown hair walked in with a smaller girl, presumably Silica. Asuna realized that she hadn't recognized her at first because the girl's dragon, Pina, wasn't at her side anymore. She stood up and waved to them, a large smile on her face.

"Is that you Asuna?" Lisbeth said with a grin. Silica looked around uncertainly, looking for someone that wasn't there. "Hey," Lisbeth said hesitantly, "is Kirito here yet?"

Asuna shook her head sadly. "He hasn't arrived… by the way, I wanted to make sure. You are Lisbeth," she gestured to the taller girl and then turned to the smaller one, "and you are Silica, right?"

Lisbeth nodded before frowning. "Why don't you just call to remind Kirito? He might've forgotten to come, or maybe he didn't get the call."

Asuna nodded thoughtfully. "That sounds like Kirito- _kun_. I guess it wouldn't hurt either way, so why not?" She pulled out her phone and pressed the power button. The screen flickered on, and she tapped the call button. She tapped in the Kirigaya household's number, and put the phone to her ear.

Someone picked up on the fifth ring. "Hello?" A tired female voice came from the other end.

"Is this the Kirigaya's home?" Asuna said brightly.

"Yes." The girl sounded suspicious, as though she suspected a trick.

"Can you tell Kirito that he was supposed to come to the Dicey Cafe?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line, during which Asuna looked around at her friends worriedly. _Did I get the wrong number?_ She wondered to herself. "We don't have a Kirito here." The girl had a tinge of confusion in her voice.

Asuna nearly pounded her forehead with her palm. _Of course his name isn't Kirito! I can't believe I forgot to use his real name!_ She sighed, glanced at the list of names she had brought, and tried again. "I'm sorry, I meant to ask for Kazuto- _kun_."

The girl gave a small cry of surprise before starting to sob quietly. Asuna was confused. What had she done wrong? The girl came back and shouted into the phone. "Is this some sort of sick prank?! That isn't even remotely funny! It's completely immoral to joke about that! Why would you say that if you know he hasn't woken up yet? Why…" The girl's voice trailed off into another series of sobs.

Asuna put her other hand to her mouth. _Kirito hasn't woken up yet?_ She sat in her chair, frozen. She didn't even notice she was crying until Lisbeth leaned in close to her, brushed a tear off of her cheek, and asked what was wrong.

She waited until she was finished crying before she responded. "Kirito is still asleep." Silica's face changed to one that seemed slightly disturbed, and Lisbeth murmured something that sounded like, 'that's awful…'

Agil and Klein exchanged glances. Klein turned to everyone. "I guess that makes what we were talking about top priority."

The girls shared a confused glance with each other before directing their attention to the two men.

"So, Agil and I here were talking about VRMMORPGs, right? He mentioned one his sister-in-law played while he was asleep called Alfheim Online, or ALO. It's something about fairies, and he's been looking into it a little bit. Anyway, the game is owned by a company called RECTO Progress. RECTO bought the SAO servers soon after Argus shut down, and as far as Agil can tell, the company used the SAO servers for ALO. We were actually going to check out the game at first, to see how it compared to SAO, but Kirito being missing changes things."

Agil nodded, and opened his mouth to speak. His rumbling bass soon filled the room. "I don't know exactly where Kirito is, but if he isn't awake, that is the only place I can think of him being. It wouldn't make sense for him to be anywhere else. I propose that we all buy the game and an AmuSphere, unless you feel comfortable still using the NerveGear, and join up somewhere to look for Kirito."

Silica raised her hand as Asuna raised a weary brow. Agil pointed to Silica. She immediately shot off two questions. "What is AmuSphere? Where can I buy it and ALO?"

Klein excitedly jumped in, interrupting Agil, who had been about to explain both questions. "The AmuSphere is like NerveGear, but safer!" He grinned at Agil, seemingly overjoyed that he had done something well. Then the energetic expression left his face to be replaced by a concerned one. "That was right, wasn't it Agil?"

Agil laughed again, enjoying the presence of his younger friends. "Close. Yes, the AmuSphere is a safer version of NerveGear, as it monitors the heartbeat and brainwaves and can kick you out when it discerns that you are at risk of certain health conditions, but it also has a thicker protective patch and doesn't use microwaves to make it harmless. And Silica? You can order them both online, but they should also be on a front display in a gaming store."

Silica smiled brightly. "Thank you!" All of her previous worries about Kirito had disappeared. "We'll save him, right Asuna- _chan_?" Asuna nearly jumped when she realized that Silica was talking to her.

"Uhhh, sure we will Silica! We will all rescue Kirito- _kun_." She turned away from the others, trying to hide her distinct unhappiness with the situation.

Agil and Klein exchanged another quick glance, concern evident on their faces. "Asuna? Are you okay with this?"

Asuna wiped her eyes, and sniffed. "I'm fine. I'll be okay. We'll save him." She was really convincing herself more than she was convincing them, but she didn't care. It just wasn't fair that she was finally free of the virtual hell SAO had been, but she was without Kirito. It wasn't fair!

She stood up and made to follow Silica out the door. "Whoa, hold on Asuna!" She turned to see Lisbeth grabbing her arm. "Everyone is here for you if you need to talk about it, okay?"

Asuna nodded, but Lisbeth still held onto her arm for several more seconds, squinting at Asuna as though she would find something interesting. She must've found what she was looking for, because she decisively nodded and let Asuna go.

Asuna turned and strode out the door to her ride. The next few months would take a _long_ time to pass, she thought to herself. She wiped away the last remaining tears and barked at the driver. "Take me back home." She settled in for the ride and turned to stare outside the window. A tear traced its way down her cheek. _Kirito…_

* * *

 _POV: Kazuto Kirigaya_

Kirito wasn't sure how long he had been locked inside the cage, but he did know that whoever was keeping him in there hated him. Nearly every day since he had arrived, he had been cut or otherwise abused by the man with the shiny crown. The man had told him that his name was Oberon, although Kirito doubted that was his real name. Kirito still shuddered to remember the phase the man went through when he had been cutting off limbs and letting them regrow. However, luckily for Kirito, ALO was a game similar to SAO, in the respect that there was some sort of pain filter that kept him from feeling any of the true pain that the torture would inflict.

Kirito was also lucky, he supposed, because he had managed to remember almost everything. Although his thoughts were still in disarray, he mostly remembered the important things and some of the smaller details. _Asuna, I'll find my way back to you._ He told himself. He didn't care how long it took, as long as it was as fast as possible.

A smooth buzzing and a clanking noise announced the arrival of Oberon, once more coming in to hurt him in some torturous way. Kirito winced as his muscles twinged in a dreadful anticipation. He raised his head to see Oberon smiling happily.

"Do you know what is going to happen to you today? No?" Oberon said cheerfully. "You get to be part of the update!"

Kirito was dumbstruck. He opened his mouth for the first time since he joined and uttered a small and confused exclamation. How was he supposed to become part of an update? He found out soon enough, as Oberon pulled out a long carving knife.

Oberon giggled maniacally, brandishing his blade. He fiddled with his in-game menu using his other hand until he apparently found the one he was looking for. "My little prisoner, do you know what I've done? I've reduced your pain absorber to a four! Any more would send you into a long coma, and we can't have that, as we need you awake when we implement the update. In the meantime, however, I can cause you as much suffering as I want!" Kirito shivered, a dreadful feeling crawling down his spine.

"What-" He managed to croak out before Oberon grabbed his shoulder at stabbed him in the stomach experimentally. Kirito cried out in fear and pain. He hadn't been acquainted with pain in the past 2 years, and this rough reunion reminded him why he hadn't missed it. He let out a rattling groan as Oberon twisted the knife before dragging it back out slowly.

A sick and twisted smile stretched ear-to-ear on Oberon's face. "You don't know how many times I've wanted to do this, and it makes it all that much sweeter that _you_ are the one I get to test it out on. Let's have some fun!" The knife plunged back into his stomach, and Kirito screamed. His nerves felt like they were on fire, and the signals hadn't stopped coming from the first wound.

Oberon ripped his blade back out roughly and shoved Kirito backwards, the sick grin still plastered on his face. Kirito groaned. He could feel sweat rolling down his back. "W-why?" He croaked before the pain made him stop speaking, a sharp jolt of it sparking up anytime he moved.

Oberon, meanwhile, had walked to his other side. "I didn't know I needed a reason." Oberon stabbed the knife into his back, and Kirito yelled in surprise. Oberon pulled the knife for a short distance, (it felt like forever to Kirito), and lifted it. He forced the knife into his back once more, and pulled it in another direction. Kirito gasped when it entered him a third time, and fell forward when it left him. He tried to turn and see what Oberon was doing, but Oberon put his hand on his shoulder and gripped harshly. "Now now, you wouldn't want your mark to be messed up, would you?"

"Mark?" Kirito whispered weakly, the word a silent question.

"Yes, mark! I'm carving something into your back, using a programming script on you so that the wound scars and leaves a permanent blemish on your body. Of course, I could just program this without being here, but this way is so - much - more fun." Kirito heard Oberon chuckle, a tinge of madness present in his laugh.

The blade ripped into his flesh once more, and Kirito fell silent after uttering a small cry. It wasn't like anything he could do would stop the torture anyway.

When it finally stopped, he let out a pained breath he didn't know he had been holding. There was an abrupt silence, and then - he screamed louder than before, a new pain coming from somewhere he couldn't feel, didn't see.

"Interesting. I was wondering if you would feel pain in your wings. It's nice to know that they've truly become part of you, now that you've been with them for 4 months, give or take. Even if you haven't used them yet, it looks like they-" A sharp jab in a different place, although Kirito didn't know where it was exactly, "-have connected to your senses. They don't have any real nerves in them, so I don't know how you can feel this pain, but I suppose it's something I can experiment with later." Kirito could hear a few familiar noises that he knew belonged to the menu. He heard a noise similar to a camera snapping a picture.

Oberon moved to face Kirito's front again, and showed him a picture. Kirito winced as he saw the deep, jagged marks ripping through a greyish black emblem on his back. He was still breathing heavily, struggling to forget the burning in his stomach, back, and - hold on a moment. Oberon had said something about wings, hadn't he? Kirito looked hurriedly at the picture, and gasped. How had he missed it the first time? The wings were a dark gray, as were the clothes he wore. He seemed to have a generic starting gear equipped, save for the golden chains around his wrists.

"Amazing, isn't it? That mark is beautifully ugly. It will fit your new character perfectly!" He started at Oberon's words. _New character?_ Kirito looked defiantly at Oberon. He opened his mouth to tell him he wouldn't change characters, but he noticed that Oberon already had an administrator's window open. He also had a picture of a drawing in the other, and was seemingly comparing it to the 3D model of Kirito's avatar on the other window.

Oberon did something small with his fingers, and the two pictures melded together, leaving the image of Kirito's avatar different in appearance. Oberon grinned, and snapped. The windows disappeared, and a tingling, gentle shock went through Kirito's system. He closed his eyes tiredly, deciding to sleep off the pain.

* * *

When he awoke, he groggily shook his head. Then he winced. He could still feel each of the wounds, although the sensations coming from them were dulled. He sighed and tried to push off the floor and stand up, but his coat kept getting in the way. _Wait, I'm wearing a coat?_ Kirito looked at his chest. He did a double take, as now he was dressed in almost noble looking finery. The new outfit was black, (naturally), and it had a stripe of gold on the outside rim of the pants. He examined his torso, to realize that its clothing had changed as well.

Instead of the starting shirt from before, he was now dressed in a ragged black cloak that also had gold highlights. There was one on the pocket, one on a shoulder patch, and another ring that went around the top of the collar. Kirito shuddered as he saw his wings when he shot a look over his shoulder. How had he not noticed them before? He winced then, as his shudder had caused the fabric to rub across his wound.

He stood, and noticed that he was no longer chained, although he was still locked inside of the cage. He swiped with his hand to open the menu. It didn't work. He tried several more times, using different fingers. He even attempted voice commands and strange gestures. He had nearly given up when he swiped with both hands. A menu similar to the SAO menu popped up where his left hand had been. He navigated the menu, looking at his equipment, his friend list, his inventory, and finally his skills.

He was pleasantly surprised to notice that his skills from SAO had remained, although several, such as Dual Wielding, had been replaced with question marks for the skill name and level.

He moved through the menu again, until he accessed the same 3D model Oberon had been at, although Kirito couldn't change his appearance back. He looked at the model and noted all of the strange changes. His appearance gave a rougher impression than it had before. While he still had the same effeminate looks as always, there was a rugged quality of wildness to them.

His eyes were a different color as well, he noted. Instead of the black they had been during his time in SAO, they were now a dark gold. His wings had also changed. Instead of the dark gray they had been, they were now an even darker gray streaked with veins of the same burnt gold color. His entire appearance seemed to have two base inspirations. Maybe noble and wild? His hair and the rest of him hadn't changed.

He turned to the door of the cage suspiciously. Could he break it? He reached for his sword before realizing he was no longer in SAO.

His eyes narrowed. He was no longer in SAO, and yet he still had all of his inventory items. Was it a mistake on Oberon's part? Either way, Kirito wouldn't give himself away just yet by busting out all of his gear from SAO. He doubted the bars could be broken anyway. He walked to own side of the large birdcage and studied one of the golden bars.

He experimentally swung a fist at one, but he immediately regretted it. He winced and studied his knuckles. They had slight flecks of the red effect wounds gave off within virtual reality. On the bright side, a notification had popped up that told him the bars were an immortal object.

He frowned. He had felt pain when his fist connected with the bars. _The pain absorber must still be lowered. There isn't anything I can do about that though, so I'll just wait until he decides to turn it off._ He wandered back to the center of the cage and sat on the bed.

A familiar ping sounded and he absentmindedly opened up the notification. He scanned it over quickly and then froze up. He started again from the top.

 **NEW EXPANSION UPDATE COMING SOON!**

 **Alfheim Online v.2.0 has been announced, and will be implemented in the next few weeks!**

 **Update will contain:**

\- New monsters

\- New quests

\- Different AI patterns

\- Another story arc

\- New locations

\- New legendary class items

 **V.2.0 will also contain an end boss to the Feral story arc!**

 **This boss, the Beast King, has a chance of dropping a legendary class item of the highest quality!**

 **Enjoy the game, and we hope you enjoy Alfheim Online v.2.0 as well!**

Kirito shook his head. There was no way. A mark, Oberon saying he would fit his new character perfectly, it all seemed to add up. He was chilled by the realization. Oberon was planning to make him be the Beast King. Noble and wild. Kirito chuckled bitterly. _I can't catch a break, can I?_ Kirito stood up and walked back to the edge of the cage again. He looked over the land below and shook his head again, once more in disbelief.

He was going to be made into a boss for players to fight. This was unbelievable. He didn't even know if he would still die forever if killed. This wasn't fair at all!

"DAMN IT!" Kirito shouted as he pounded the cage with his fist. "Damn it…" His new body shook from his sobs. "Can't I just get a chance to enjoy myself?" He whispered, bitter again. He sank to the floor and leaned against the bars. He drew his legs up close to his body and wrapped his arms around them. Tears rolled down his cheeks, but he didn't bother to wipe them away. It wouldn't matter anyway. More would fall soon enough. He spent the rest of the day there, crying until he had no more tears to give up.

When he was done, he slowly crawled into the bed and pulled the blankets over his head. He didn't want to see the cage any longer, and if he were under the covers, he could pretend he was at home, sleeping in until the last moment, when Suguha would come in to wake him up. He yelped as he pinched one of his wings by accident. Another tear fell, and he rolled onto his stomach. No, he couldn't pretend any longer. It would only hurt more when he decided to face reality if he continued to act like everything was alright. He fell asleep with his cheek on the pillow, watching the moon rise.

 _I'll keep my promise, even if I have to die to carry it out. I'll see Asuna again. I'll see her, whether at her sword point or my own. I_ will _find her._

 **END CHAPTER ONE**

* * *

 **AN: So, how was it? Tell me what you thought, whether you think I should write professionally or if you think I should go die in a hole. (I don't honestly care if you 'flame' me, just make sure you're actually burning something, cause I'm not likely to care about what you think unless you have some idea I like, a question I want to answer, or some constructive criticism. Don't suck up for the purpose of sucking up either. That's ridiculous.) I know this chapter was probably annoying with all of the POV switches, but I kind of wanted to tell you when we switching as well as who we were switching to. I hope you enjoy the story (if I get over my lazy habits and keep writing this.) …. I actually don't know what to do right now, or even how to post a story the right way, so I guess I'll try to post this, and if it fails I'll fix it. Somehow. Oh, and in case you want to complain about the names not being in 'true Japanese format' or whatever, I'll have you know that A) I don't care, and B) I'm lazy and like copy pasting, and the way it shows up is the way I found it. Have a nice day!**


	2. Beginning

**AN: Might as well just post this now, 'cause if I don't, I won't _ever_ post it.**

 **To start, I want to let you guys know that I feel like I've made some mistakes in the first chapter, but that's kind of bound to happen. I fixed some of them earlier, but I left some others in. It doesn't help that I'm currently trying to work out my writing style.**

 **From now on, I'll be answering reviews or questions at the bottom of the chapter. I appreciate the feedback, and really, it matters to me if I** _ **get**_ **advice, criticism, and questions. (Or the occasional suggestion? *hinthint*). Otherwise I don't know if you even really read it. Anyone can say nice job, or can tell someone they should break their fingers and never write again. Well, that's a bit extreme, but you get my point. Oh, but don't feel like you have to add things into what you want to tell me. What I was meaning to say was, well, thanks for taking the time to review, basically. I didn't actually even expect anyone to read this, heheh… Lucky I've even got as many views as I do... …And now, on to the chapter~**

* * *

 **Chapter Two: Beginning**

初め - _hajime (begin/beginning)_

 _POV: Asuna Yuuki_

Asuna frowned at the cords running from the AmuSphere to her computer. She didn't quite understand how it would work, but that didn't matter as long as it _did_ work. She shot another of several previous looks to the loading screen displayed on the computer monitor. She could hardly keep from grinning in anticipation as she saw the words 'Download Complete' on the screen. She sent a few quick messages to the others, (they had exchanged numbers when they had met for a second time, and Asuna could still remember Klein saying that he had never expected to get _one_ girl's number, let alone _three_ ), confirming that her in-game username would be the same as it had been in SAO.

She looked out the window and stared at the sky. The sun was higher up, nearing its noonday arc. _I'll have about an hour or two to search for Kirito, then I'll have to come back and eat with Mother and Father. After that, I'll come back to search some more._ Her day now more or less planned, she nodded and clicked the 'Confirm' button on the download popup.

She walked over to the bed, took one last glance at the manual, then laid down and put the visor on.

Once she put it on, she tried to look around, but couldn't see anything. Confused, she went through a mental checklist in her head. _I made sure it had a full battery, I plugged it into the computer, I downloaded the game. What is left?_ Asuna pondered the question, and sighed when she came to the answer. It had been a long time since she had last said the words she now needed. She prepared herself for the world she would be joining and said one simple phrase: "Link Start!"

Immediately, bars of color whizzed past her face as the startup initiated. Five bubbles popped up, and a language option. She blinked at it and selected Japanese. The bubbles spun and turned green before aligning themselves in a row on the right side of her view. They all flashed the word 'complete' them before they disappeared.

Her surroundings suddenly changed, and she was in the center of a dark and circular room lit up by orange tinted neon lights on the floor, ceiling, and walls. A mechanical voice spoke up suddenly. "Welcome to Alfheim Online! It seems you already have a profile! Would you like to sign in or create a new one?"

Asuna furrowed her brow. _Already have a profile? How could that be?_ Asuna thought for a moment before dismissing the thought quickly. _I must've accidentally bought a used copy. I don't really want to use their progress to get farther ahead._ She looked at the character label and made her decision. _Besides, the name Titania doesn't suit me._ She swiped to the right to dismiss the message, and tapped 'create new.'

The voice spoke up again. "To begin, please enter your character's gender and name." Asuna typed in 'Asuna' without a second thought. A wheel with nine figures popped up. "The next step is race selection. Please choose one of the nine races." Asuna spun the wheel with her finger. She was divided between a race styled in purple and one based in blue. She looked from one to the other. She pointed to one, and then the other, silently chanting in her head. When she stopped, she was pointing at the blue one.

"Undine, correct? Your character's appearance will be randomly generated. Is that alright?" Asuna nodded before realizing the program most likely wouldn't respond to that. She glanced at the Y/N popup and tapped the Y. "You will now be transferred to the Undine hometown." The dark room faded into whiteness. Asuna wasn't sure, but she could have sworn that she heard the machine say, "We wish you the best of luck."

Asuna watched as her current placeholder avatar was replaced by a more detailed Undine avatar. She looked down, and saw blue hair styled how she usually wore it. She was a little surprised by the color, but she had expected it once she saw the blue hair on the Undine template in the spin wheel.

A layer of clothing appeared in a shower of blue sparks, and she squeaked in surprise. The uniform that appeared on her looked somewhat similar to the uniform she wore when she was in the Knights of Blood. Although where the KoB uniform had red as a secondary color, this new outfit was seconded by a blue that was a few shades darker than her light hair.

She let out a small cry as the whiteness transformed into the darkness of the night sky. She fell from the sky, wind blowing past her. As the adrenaline flowed through her veins, she let out a careless whoop of exhilaration. She knew that it wasn't real in the back of her mind, but that took the enjoyment out of things. It was better to have fun where she could, in her opinion.

As she neared the ground and started to pick out individual people, her fall slowed, and her feet gravitated downward. She paused when she landed and looked around hesitantly. She saw people flying, as well as running around. There were also several blue haired people standing around talking. She saw someone swipe down with their thumb and pointer, and tried to copy the gesture. When she did, a menu that looked nearly identical to the one from SAO popped up. The only difference was the addition of a logout button.

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Now that her fears had been dispelled, she navigated her way quickly through the menu. To her surprise, she had the exact same stats as she had had in SAO, although she couldn't use some of her skills. She also had the same equipment in her inventory, but she assumed she wouldn't be able to use it. She could also see Kirito's gear and access it, due to their married status, which gave her some small relief. If he was still on her contacts list, he was still alive.

She scanned their shared inventory for any items that didn't have the red exclamation point that she assumed meant it wasn't compatible with ALO. She had almost given up the search when she saw one item in Kirito's inventory near the end of the list. The system had labeled it Yui's Heart. She gasped and tapped on it to take it out. A soft light shone from one of her pockets. She heard a quiet yawn, and felt something move.

 _No way…_ She thought to herself. "Y-Yui?" She said tentatively, hoping against hope for the impossible to happen.

There was a series of small movements, and a tiny arm poked up over the lip of her pocket. A small head popped up next, and the miniscule girl let out another yawn. The girl rubbed her eyes and looked around. She climbed the rest of the way out of the pocket, stretched, and spread her new wings. She flew up to about eye level with Asuna. She spoke sleepily. "Yes Mama? What is it?"

Asuna was stunned. "Yui? Is that you?"

Yui rubbed her eyes and looked closer at Asuna, concerned. "Are you alright Mama? Your emotional status is fluctuating."

Asuna still couldn't move. She was trying to come to terms with Yui's reappearance. "Yui, you look different. What happened?"

Yui smiled happily before she spoke, and spun in a circle in the air. "When you brought me back from Papa's things, the system formatted me into a new role. I'm supposed to be a navigation pixie, but don't worry. I'm still Yui. And you're still Mama!" Yui smiled and tried to hug Asuna, but quickly realized that she was too small. She settled for a small kiss on the cheek instead. Yui grinned at the shocked Asuna, and then started looking around. "Mama, where is Papa?"

Asuna coughed suddenly, not as shocked anymore, but instead she was nearly overwhelmed by a wave of sadness. "Papa is… gone, right now. We have to find him. Can you help me Yui?"

Yui cocked her head to the side, mildly confused, but when she heard Asuna's request she nodded and smiled. Asuna could almost see the gears turning in Yui's head when she concentrated. Yui uttered a frustrated noise, before she put on a pouting face. "I can't find him! I don't have the administrator's privileges I had before…"

"Is it because this isn't SAO?" Yui thought about it, and nodded.

Asuna scanned the square for a place to rest, and saw an empty bench across the square. She walked over to it, Yui trailing behind her. She sat and reopened the menu. She slid open the contacts tab, and tried to add the others, but since everything apparently carried over from SAO, they were all already there. They were also all online except for Silica, and she had already said that she would be unable to look for Kirito for a week or two the last time they had met.

She was quickly invited to a group call, which was similar to chatting with more than one person on the phone, except their faces would be displayed instead of their taglines. She accepted the invitation and was immediately greeted by faces that looked familiar, yet different.

Lisbeth's hair, which had been a brown Asuna had _finally_ gotten used to, was once again a vibrant pink. Klein's hair was a lighter shade of red-orange, and Agil was more or less the same, although he did have a strange marking over his left eye.

Her attention was first drawn to Klein's bandana. She groaned aloud, and he frowned. "You too? Why doesn't anyone believe that my character came this way?"

Lisbeth grinned mischievously. "It isn't that we don't believe the character didn't come that way, it's that we can't understand why you _kept_ the bandana. Do you _ever_ change your style?"

The Salamander smirked. "What is there to change to?"

Asuna sighed at her friends and shook her head. Agil smiled, but got right down to business. "I'm thinking that we should meet up at the world tree before we search for Kirito. Since Lisbeth and I are the closest to each other, being Gnome and Leprechaun, we'll meet up and go to the tree together. Klein and Asuna, I'm sorry, but you two will have to make your own ways to the tree, or find someone to travel with. First, we all need to learn to fly. That is priority one. From there, we can-" The conversation was interrupted by a simultaneous ping from each of them.

Asuna glanced at the notification that popped up. She read it twice, to make sure she read it right. She looked back up at everyone's faces.

"Th-this is bad." Agil whispered, eyes wide.

"Why?" Lisbeth asked quizzically. "Wouldn't it be good for the game to get an expansion?"

"If the game world expands, we won't be able to find him as quickly as we'd like to. Though, from what I can see, we have a few weeks before the Beast King messes things up for us."

"It all depends on the order in which they implement the updates." Asuna finished for him.

Lisbeth signed. "It looks like we won't have much time to search before everything goes crazy. Let's go, then. We don't want to waste any more time."

Asuna nodded, said her goodbyes, and left the group call. She closed her menu, then flew away. Or rather, she _tried_ to. She didn't actually know how to fly yet, so she only ended up jumping up and down in one place.

She let out a frustrated huff and watched Yui try to explain while effortlessly flying around. It didn't make her mood any better.

A few more moments of watching Yui do acrobatics, and someone patted her shoulder lightly. Flashing back to her days in SAO where every second counted, she stood and spun to face the person behind her, hand already reaching for a sword she no longer had.

The boy backed away, hands up and waving back and forth, trying to calm her down. The automated tones of his language being translated into Japanese confused her momentarily, but she remembered the system that SAO had boasted before the death game started. The translation software was supposedly superb, but she had never witnessed it herself, as the death game had released early in Japan. "Whoa there! I just wanted to ask if you wanted someone to teach you how to fly!"

Asuna relaxed from her ready position and chuckled nervously. She studied his sturdier clothing and old cloak. "Was I that obvious?"

The boy laughed, then looked off to the side while brushing the back of his head. "I actually did something similar when I first joined the game. Unlike you, I had to learn on my own." He paused and then looked at her hopefully. "Although I'm willing to teach you, as long as you add me to your contacts."

Asuna's head tilted at an angle. "Why is that?"

The boy coughed, still awkwardly looking away. "To be honest, I've been dared by my friends over there," he gestured to a group of young Undine players who were laughing with each other and watching him, "but you being beautiful certainly helps." He finished the second half of his statement with an intense blush, and Asuna watched, taken aback, as his pointed ears turned cherry red.

When she realized what he had said, _her_ face was the one that flushed. "S-s-sorry, I have somebody else already, b-but I'd be glad to learn from you." She stammered.

His face fell at her words, but he seemed to come to terms with it when she sent him the contact offer.

He shook his head, laughed his disappointment off, then accepted. He turned and grinned at his friends, flashing them a thumbs up before he faced her again to the distant noise of their cheers. He held out his hand for her to shake. The faint robotic tone of the translated Japanese didn't quite manage to hide his embarrassment.

"My name is Bluejay, but please, call me Jay. Do you mind telling me your name?" Jay said almost shyly, his hand still outstretched.

Asuna smiled back cautiously. "I'm Asuna, and this is my first time playing this game. _Watashi wa anata ni aete ureshii_. I'm glad I met you."

Jay laughed while his avatar ran its hand through his short blue hair, tousling it and giving it a slightly messy look. "I'm glad I met you too."

Asuna smiled lightly at the nervous teen. Yui, however, was not amused. "Mama, I thought Papa would be the one to cheat, not you!"

Jay jumped slightly at Yui's sudden appearance. "Is that a-"

"Yes, it is a navigation pixie." Asuna cut in, looking apologetically at Yui. "She has a custom AI core, so she says some interesting things occasionally. It's best to ignore her." Asuna mouthed a 'sorry' at Yui, but she merely frowned and turned her back on both of them. Asuna huffed and said, "By the way, I'm _not_ cheating. Jay is just a new friend."

"Navigation pixie's are strange…" Jay glanced at Yui one more time before he launched into an explanation of the flight mechanics. "OK, first, you need to find your flightstick. I don't know what it really is, but that's just what I call it. Once you do that, your wings will move. The way you interact with the flightstick changes how and where you fly. For example, to land, you-"

Asuna didn't hear the rest. She had already taken out her flightstick, marveling at the way her wings fluttered in response, and had taken off by accident, flicking her flightstick in a random direction to see how quickly it could move. Instead of moving gently in the direction she expected, she was thrown quickly in a diagonal fashion, heading straight for a spire on one of the buildings. She pulled back sharply on the flightstick and came to a standstill. Almost. She was still drifting backwards.

Jay flew up to her, trying hard not to laugh. "That was good, for a beginner. At least you didn't _hit_ the building. It might take a while, but as your new teacher, I'll get you flying in no time!" With their combined determination, it only took two hours. It could have been shorter, but they both had to stop and eat in the real world.

When she had finally learned how to fly properly, Asuna tried to tell Jay goodbye. He asked where she was going, and when she told him she was heading to the World Tree, a huge grin spread across his face. "Asuna, you're in luck, because my friends and I were just about to leave for there as well!"

He insisted she come with, because in his words, she would be better off walking to the World Tree if she didn't have someone to give her flying advice. She eventually sighed and agreed to go with him and his friends, if only because giving up would let her leave faster.

Jay happily dragged her over to be introduced to his friends. "Guys, this is Asuna. Asuna, guys." He introduced each of his allies in turn, an archer, a boy with glasses, a warrior, and a girl with a hat and staff, pointing to them as they were announced.

Cardinal (the name brought back bad memories of Heathcliff and SAO, but the person behind it wasn't near as bad as either of them) was an outspoken rascal that couldn't seem to behave, but Asuna could see his sweet side whenever he spoke with the girl with the bow. He was the attacker for the casual group, and boasted about his ability to swing the large, unwieldy broadsword on his back. Asuna found it impractical, but if he enjoyed it, who was she took criticize him? He was loud and confident, and the bold and red streak of hair going through the rest of his long, bright blue hair was a prime example.

Solo was a small boy who seemed to have, from the impression the others attitudes and his glasses gave her, bookish tendencies. He was supposedly the group's attack mage, specializing in the water magic the Undine fairies favored. He started out acting shy, but when he got used to her he opened up more. However, when he started talking about something he enjoyed, she couldn't get him to stop.

The archer's name was Evie, and she had her bow at the ready even now. She had supposedly gotten a Leprechaun to build one, and since then had trained her eye, along with her Searching level, to catch anything the others missed. According to Jay, she wasn't as strange in the real world as she was in the game world. Evie was also the girl that Cardinal kept trying to get the attention of, although she didn't seem to notice him at all.

Sapphire was the party's healer, or support mage, along with being Jay's twin sister. She sported a brown pair of pants on her in-game character, which would have clashed with the rest of her outfit if she didn't have a staff, boots, and a hat to match. Asuna asked about their relationship when she noticed their familiarity with each other. Jay had said they were siblings, to which Sapphire replied, "Unfortunately," with a frown.

Last but not least was Jay himself. He was the leader of their group of friends. According to him, all five of them lived in the same neighborhood, and had been in the same class since their second year in elementary school. It hadn't taken much for all of them to become fast friends. In battle, Jay directed the battle formation and seconded Cardinal as an attacker. Cardinal, however, was a build that focused more on tanking and giving attacks that do large amounts of damage. Jay was a balanced player, steadily chipping away at the enemy before dodging attacks and getting right back into the fray.

Asuna didn't know how things would actually play out on the battlefield, but that was just the way they described themselves.

When they were finished introducing themselves and each other, she smiled brightly at them. "Thank you for allowing me to come with you!"

Solo readjusted his glasses, the shy grin reappearing. "It was no problem."

Cardinal scoffed. "Of course. We'll always want more beauties on the team." Asuna gaped at him as he immediately snuck a glance at Evie to see if she was affected at all.

Evie only blinked to acknowledge Asuna before returning to suspiciously watching the other players in the large town square.

Jay turned to leave with his classmates, but Asuna grabbed onto his sleeve. "Can you wait a little bit? I need to go find a sword I'm more accustomed to."

He gave her a slight nod and called out to his friends. "I'll be a little late getting to the meeting place. I need to help Asuna get a better sword."

Sapphire scowled and nodded. "Be sure that's the _only_ thing you do. We all know how you can't resist any girl you come across, and we won't loan you money this time if she takes it all." Jay's face flushed, though Asuna couldn't tell if it was with anger or embarrassment. He muttered an affirmative and led Asuna through the city to the weapons vendors.

Upon arrival, she stared around the streets in wonder. She had seen a VR shop street before, on almost every floor in SAO, but she hadn't seen one like this. People were teasing each other and joking around. The atmosphere was happy and festive. In SAO, the atmosphere of the vendors' areas had always been desperate and solemn. It was a serious thing to buy a sword in the death game. It was the tool most people relied on to keep their lives safe. One wrong choice could end your life in that game, and getting a new blade was another decision that could either save you from death's grip, or deliver you and your comrades to it.

The brightness of these streets didn't mesh with her memories of the vendors at all.

Jay tapped her shoulder, startling her out of her thoughts. "What kind of sword are you looking for? There are several kinds, and different shops sell different ones."

Asuna knew her answer before he was even finished asking the question. "A rapier." There was no doubt in her voice, an absolute confidence was in it that implied years of experience with the particular blade.

"Were you some prodigy where you lived?"

Asuna smiled grimly, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "You could say that."

She saw Jay shiver involuntarily. "Those kinds of blades are over in that store there. It's the only place that sells them. I'll come in with you." He pointed to a dirty shop at the back of an alleyway. The moon lit up an old wooden sign hanging on the door handle.

She could hardly wait to have her hands on another rapier, couldn't wait to feel the familiar feathery weight of it again. _Finally, something will be the same in this world._ She felt a pang of guilt for thinking that, but pushed it away. Whether her friends were by her side or not, as long as Kirito wasn't there, it didn't matter.

When she opened the door, she quickly surveyed the inside of the store. It was a simple open room with swords on racks and a few in glass cases on display. There was a counter across from the door, and when the NPC 'heard' the jingle of it opening, he looked up at her. He was modeled after a fat old man, and had plenty of wrinkles.

His lined face broke into a smile. "Welcome! This is Chunky's Sword Store! Selling everything from swords to, well, swords!"

She laughed with the old man before spinning in a circle, surveying all of her choices. She slowed her spin even further and then stopped it when she saw something intriguing. She wandered over to it, still looking at all the other choices, but she somehow knew that she would walk out with the one that had caught her attention.

It was hung up on the wall, in a dusty old sheath that looked like it hadn't been touched in several decades. The NPC walked up behind her. "I see you have good taste. That particular blade has been in the family for several generations. My father said that it was forged and wielded by an Alv, and as of yet it hasn't failed any others that take it into battle." Asuna smiled inside as a quest notification popped up. She had been lucky to come to this store, this sword. From what she could tell so far, she had accidentally initiated a quest that would end in her winning the blade, according to the quest description, and against all odds, she felt like she knew the blade.

"Since you have the eye for a real treasure, I'll let you have it. _If_ you beat my grandson in a duel with it. I taught him everything he knows, and despite what I look like, I'll have you know that I was quite the fighting expert in my youth." He walked behind the counter and knocked on a door behind it. "Boy! I need you to have a match with this young lady!"

The door opened, and a teen about Jay's size walked into view. She heard a sharp intake of breath from Jay, and gave him a puzzled glance. "Will you be okay fighting him? I can take him on if you don't want to."

Jay's attempt to protect her reminded her of Kirito, and her mouth twitched in a sad grin. "I'll be fine. I've been training with this kind of blade for about two years."

"That doesn't mean you've been fighting every day like he has! He's an NPC! He won't get tired, but you will!"

She snorted. ' _Haven't been fighting every day.' Ridiculous. I fought for thousands of lives for upwards of two years with this kind of blade. I risked my life with a sword like this, and it protected me. Anything less, and I wouldn't be standing here._ Her face changed into one Jay knew well from his dealings with his sister Samara. It was the face of a girl who has made up her mind. He also knew from his experiences with his sister that Asuna couldn't be persuaded to stop, couldn't even be forced to stop. A determined girl was a scary thing.

She reached for the rapier and drew it out of the dusty, ancient cover. It shone, being exposed to the light again after so long in darkness. She averted her eyes from the bright glare for a moment, and when her eye returned to it she gasped. She immediately swiped down with her left hand and navigated to the inventory screen. She stared at the inaccessible rapier in her inventory and the blade in her hand. _No way…_

The dim light that still gleamed from the rapier convinced her. She just needed to check one more thing. She checked the inaccessible weapon's status from her inventory and compared it to the one in her hand. There was no more doubt in her mind. This was the same Lambent Light +40 that she had in her inventory, that she had used during SAO. Though it had a different name, the Redeeming Light, it was the exact same sword. _But why is it_ here? She looked wondrously at the old man and his grandson.

The old man heartily. "Aye, it is a good piece of work. It cut through several sets of fae-crafted chainmail on one occasion, and still was able to take down a few of those gigantic monster scorpions in Salamander territory afterwards. It's a right amazing blade!"

"Asuna?" Jay whispered, friendly concern evident in his voice. "Are you still okay?"

"It's fine." She murmured, back to staring at the blade. "I just didn't think that I would see this sword again."

"What do you mean?" She shushed him and followed the old man as he led her and her new opponent to a proper place to fence.

As she and the boy readied themselves for the upcoming fight, she smiled. She had relied on this sword for the better half of two years. It hadn't let her down then, and it wouldn't let her down now. She let out a shout and lunged when the old man gave them the signal to start. It sounded more like a victory cheer than a battle cry.

* * *

 _POV: Kazuto Kirigaya_

When Kirito's eyes opened, they were instantly assaulted by the bright sun. He shut them and lazily rolled over. "Five more minutes Sugu." His tired voice trailed off. He yelped, his wings pinched again.

 _Wings._ The previous day's events came rushing back to him. He jolted into a sitting position, then froze up. He gritted his teeth against the aches and pains coming from the knife wounds Oberon had given him.

He stood carefully, making sure not to inflame the healing injuries any further. He looked down at himself, keeping a hand between his eyes and the sun. He had slept in the gold-trimmed black clothing Oberon had forced on him, and it was surprisingly comfortable.

He yawned and stretched, arching his back like a cat. He could hear and feel the crackles and pops of his joints.

He spotted a tray on the table in the middle of his space. He squinted, the early waking fog still in his eyes. He bolted over to it as soon as he realized there was food on it. As he scarfed it down, a clanging noise shook the cage lightly. He glanced over his shoulder for curiosity's sake. He took in the stately appearance of Oberon. His decorative robes, his yellow hair, the shining crown. Kirito realized that he hated every single bit of it.

While he was busy drilling holes in Oberon with his death glare, Oberon was tossing two swords into the cage. They weren't of the best quality, and Kirito could tell at a glance that these swords were somehow _worse_ than the starting gear everyone had been given at the beginning of SAO. There were nicks and the occasional dent along both of their lengths.

Kirito warily moved towards them, watching for any trick of Oberon's. He paused when he reached the blades. He glared at Oberon and looked him in the eyes. "What are you up to?" He spat.

Oberon didn't move from his position at the door. "I'm giving you something to do. You can use the swords to practice your fighting. I'm giving you two in case the durability runs out. Consider yourself lucky." He leered at Kirito, contorting the avatar's face into an unnatural shape as the system read his emotions and exaggerated them.

Kirito let out a growl, and at first he didn't realize that he was the one making the sound.

Oberon looked pleasantly surprised. "It appears that they've already modified your emotion-reading processes. Now your expressions and actions will become more - suitable, I suppose - to your new role. Good luck hiding _that_."

Kirito was already trembling with barely concealed anger, and when Oberon finished talking, he couldn't hold it in any longer. A furious roar filled the air, surprising both Oberon and himself. He lunged for Oberon with both blades in his hands. Another partially formed snarl escaped from his mouth before he was frozen in place. The blades were less than a foot from Oberon's throat.

Oberon stared at Kirito, fear present in his expression. Then he laughed, finger still on the 'freeze' command in the administrator's menu. "You're better than I could have hoped for!" He laughed even harder, and bent double from the force of it all. "I keep expecting you to let me down, and then you take my expectation and blow it out of the water! Even an AI couldn't pull this off! You're just so _human!_ "

Kirito was seething on the inside, but he still couldn't move. It felt like his limbs were made of concrete. He was a statue stuck in place.

Oberon wiped a few tears from the corner of his eyes, still snickering. When he stopped, his face changed in an instant to a look that sent a chill through the still-furious Kirito. "You know though, even if you've become the perfect wild beast, that wasn't very nice of you. I might have to teach you how to behave." Kirito panicked as Oberon slowly drew out the dagger from before.

He spasmed as he struggled to break free from the hold of the 'freeze' command. Oberon drew closer and closer until - with a short dinging sound - the command stopped and Kirito fell back onto the floor of the cage. He stared at Oberon, relieved and grateful for his ever-present good luck. The fairy king had accidentally bumped the 'release' option with his knuckle.

Kirito scampered back from the door as quickly as he could. Scattered thoughts whizzed through his mind. _After the last time that wicked blade came out, I'll abandon anything to avoid it. My pride is nothing right now._ Kirito hadn't ever liked pain in the real world anyway. Even a scraped knee was too much, so while he had taken kendo, he had strived to be the best. If he couldn't be hit, couldn't be defeated, he wouldn't get hurt. Not by his opponent, and not by his grandfather either. Anything to avoid the pain. _Anything._

Oberon sheathed his blade angrily as Kirito escaped him and stomped away on the gigantic tree branch.

Kirito breathed a tired sigh of relief. He stood and examined the rust covered blades. They were terrible, he decided, but they would have to do for now. He fell smoothly into his familiar stance, both swords in a relaxed position. He would take Oberon's advice and practice his swordsmanship until he was released. From what he had seen of the fai plans for him so far, every second would count towards his survival once he was out in the rest of the game world.

Kirito knew he would get out of the cage, whether by way of force or by way of Oberon setting him 'free.' He would rather escape under his own terms though, so he planned in his head while he practiced his skills, training the already godlike skills to new heights, if possible.

He even tried to replicate a few Sword Skills he remembered, and while they weren't at all perfect, they would certainly give him the illusion of being much more powerful than he truly was.

He made himself another promise as he pushed past the artificial ache in his virtual muscles, practicing his form until he collapsed, simulated sweat rolling down his body and being flicked off his hair any time his head shook.

 _I'll claw my way back to this sick administrator, whether in this world or the real one, and I'll teach him some kind of lesson. Maybe not murder in the real world, but definitely in this one._ He fell then, his body refusing to work any longer, the hours of repeatedly fighting shadows taking their toll. The exhaustion rumbled through his body like a wave, or more like a power outage.

As the signal to stop echoed through his body, he closed his eyes. Hours of practice, of shadow combat, and he barely felt any different. He would just have to work twice as hard tomorrow, he decided, before finally closing his eyes to the polka-dotted black tapestry that was the night sky, unfamiliar constellations hung suspended in time, light from thousands, maybe millions of years in the past finally reaching the green planet. Maybe this planet wasn't even in the same fictional galaxy as Earth, and that was why the constellations were so different. The thought ricocheted around in his mind. He mulled over it, thinking hard, lying on the large bed. He fell asleep to the foreign stars, images of home floating through his head.

* * *

 _POV: Jayson Blue_

Jay stared through his avatar's eyes in amazement. This 'Asuna' girl wasn't just any old prodigy, she had to be an expert. The way she carried herself, her posture ready and yet somehow still graceful, awed him. Then the match started, and he was blown away.

She shouted and darted forward like a bolt of lightning and scored a point in the same motion, jabbing the boy lightly in the stomach. Jay stared at the scene, shocked by her speed. Even the NPCs seemed stunned. The older shopkeeper opened and closed his mouth, files either broken or processing slowed. He finally kickstarted and gave the point to the girl.

Jay looked at her in a new light. A girl like this would be useful on his team, and like his friend Cardinal had said, there could never be too many beauties in a group.

While he was contemplating this, he nearly missed Asuna's next point. Asuna had allowed the blades to clash, and a furious back-and-forth battle erupted, Asuna starting on the assault, then letting her opponent lead. Jay could only see a blur as Asuna took the lead again and sped up the pace of the exchange. She let off of the pressure on her opponent, dodged his next strikes, and maneuvered around his defenses, scoring another point.

He flinched when the third match started. Asuna had narrowly dodged the first strike from the boy. It was the exact same attack that had taken him by surprise the first time.

She twisted under his guard and scored another point in an instant.

The old man, who was playing the referee, looked worried now. He clearly hadn't expected Asuna to be any good at all.

From the previous exchange of blows between Asuna and the boy, Jay knew he wouldn't have stood a chance.

The point was called by the man, leaving Asuna with a three point lead.

As the old man and Asuna had agreed, the match was to seven points. If Asuna managed to score another point on the boy's central body or head, she would win the sword from the secret quest.

"Go Asuna! You've got this!" He cheered, encouraging her to win. At least, that's what he _thought_ he was doing. Instead, it distracted her and made her lose her rhythm. She stumbled and the NPC scored a point. She glared fiercely at Jay.

He shuddered. His sister and Asuna were definitely similar. The can-do attitude, the glare, the _stubbornness_. Seeing how close they seemed in character, he doubted either would ever change their minds once they were made up. "I'll be quiet now!" He squeaked, still under Asuna's glare. The glare left her face and her lips curved up minutely. She turned the glare towards the NPC, and although Jay knew she was facing a computer program, he could see the boy shake slightly.

The old man hesitantly called out for the round to start, and Asuna rushed for the boy again. She dodged his first attacks, always out of reach by an inch or two. Then she launched into a series of quick jabs that, from what Jay saw, were merely meant to distract the enemy, as none of them really connected with the boy.

Asuna quit pressing her advantage and stepped back for a moment. The boy seized his chance and lunged for her. She sidestepped it and spun, then put the tip of her sword to his back as she slipped past him. "Have I won the sword now?" She asked the old man.

Still wide-eyed, he nodded. The words he spoke sounded oddly off-kilter, the NPC somehow dazed by the display of skill. "You bested my son in combat, and I gave you my word. The blade is yours."

Jay watched open-mouthed as Asuna took the blade in one hand and the scabbard in the other, subsequently equipping the two of them and sheathing the rapier. "How the devil are you so good at this already?! Most _veterans_ of this game wouldn't even be able to compete on that level. That quest should be _impossible._ "

Jay blinked when he saw Asuna's sad smile. "I guess I'm not like most veterans." His mind started to work as he caught something she said. ' _Not like most veterans,' did she say? I thought she hadn't played this game before._ He was still thinking about it when Asuna yanked on his arm and started pulling him out the door. They had been walking down the street for quite a while when Jay tapped her shoulder.

"Hey, Asuna?"

"Yes?"

"The meeting place is in the woods on the outside of town across the bridge. Which is in the other direction."

Asuna stopped walking and lowered her head, embarrassed. Not quite meeting his eyes, she thanked him. As he led the way, she fell into step behind him.

 **END CHAPTER TWO**

* * *

 **AN: Yup, it's another chapter! To be honest, I wanted to write something longer, but I can leave it here. I didn't want to make a large jump in size right away. I just wrote the first chapter shorter than I usually like to see if you readers would take the bait.**

 **If my writing changes, please bear with me. Like I mentioned, I'm still developing my style, and I'm never quite happy with what I write at this point. If you say it's good, I'll trust you for now. I know the pacing of the story is a bit off, but it's how I wanted to write it. I think. I don't really remember, but if I change it, I'll change something else, and something else, and then** _ **another**_ **thing… so it's probably best to just read through for grammar mistakes and misspelled or wrong words now.**

 **I appreciate the reviews I've gotten so far, and thanks to everyone else who's taken the time to read the story.**

 **Review Responses :**

 **COMMENTMAN (Guest):**

No, Kirito will not be instantly recognizable. I'm planning it to be more his words and actions/attitude that give him away. He'll probably remind the others of himself, due to the ever-present black color scheme and the hair, but they won't just see him and think: _Oh, it's Kirito._ Now that I've thought things through, he'll recognize them at first, not the other way around. (And that way, until he gets through to them, we can put our good friend in a tight spot...) Then again, I might change things

 **VergilChan:**

I'll just list off your questions or something, since you had a lot of them. (Or rather, since my answers are kinda long.)

1\. Yeah, I suppose the outfit and all is a little OOC, though you have to remember that what Kirito looks like isn't up to him at the moment, seeing as how he's at the every whim of Sugou and the system. I'm going to go back to change a few things once I post this chapter, but the basic theme will stay the same. (All the gold was my fault, 'cause I kind of wanted to follow the feral Kirito from A Muffin With a Mission's A Missing Sword as well as create my own feral.) The hair was going to be the one from Season 2, as Kirito was pulled directly from SAO to ALO.

2\. No, Yui won't help Kirito. I've got something else planned, so Kirito doesn't get lonely.

3\. Yes, one or two of them..

4\. Poor writing on my part, I thought they might look a little different, but you're right. Comparing pictures from SAO to the IRL models, they look mostly the same, it's just the clothing that changes. In other words, I screwed up.

5.I think I answer this one later, and I'm trying to _not_ screw up the story speed, trying to keep the pace to what I started with, but it's annoying having all these fun ideas that I can't write about yet. Ehhh, I'll deal with it. But anyway, to answer your actual question, I have absolutely no idea. When I've written shorts for myself and similar things, I usually have difficulty with transitions, so I might screw up and make it too long while I'm trying to find the perfect time to shift plot points. Who knows how many chapters this will end up being. The only thing I know, (or think), right now is that it probably won't get above 50 chapters. Which will probably result in some longer chapters during the peak of the story, but I think people like that. Maybe. Another ramble, and I'm sorry I took so long to say this, but I have absolutely no clue how long this will end up being. Write as I go, remember? (Not the best strategy, but at least if I get an idea from a review that completely trashes any plans I already have I won't have to do much to fix the storyline. I end up throwing away a few ideas instead of a few chapter's worth of words.)

6\. There will be chapters from minor OCs as well as characters besides the protagonists and antagonist. I'll try to give the OCs a semi-interesting role, but I don't know if the whole thing will work out just yet.

Thanks for the questions and the review, since it helped me worry about specific problems instead of making me wonder if _anything_ I've done so far is worth putting up on the internet. I appreciate the story compliments. I hope you and everyone else out there sticks with me while I try to figure this mess out.

 **A few more things. You might have been hoping for a longer Kirito scene, but I kind of messed up. I originally wanted the update announcement to say that it was going to be** _ **entirely**_ **implemented soon, but my save reverted, so I ended up with a few weeks worth of filler content, unfortunately. Ehhhhhhhh.. Most likely I'll write something about Asuna's journey with Jay and friends, then write some small scenes of everyone searching and adventuring of whatever. I might skip the whole period of time altogether, and jump straight to Kirito's 'escape' from the cage, but that's the more unlikely of the two. Whatever you guys decide, I suppose. The only thing I know for certain from here until things really kick off is that I'll write about the trip to the World Tree, and even then I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a steadier pace going.**

 **EDIT: Changed the first chapter, but I'll leave this section of the AN here, as it still applies. I'd be fine with writing scenes of filler until Kirito comes to screw my writing over, seeing as how I don't feel as confident writing him as I do Asuna. Ermmm.. please forgive me for making an OC crush on Asuna one sidedly. It just kind of… happened… while I was writing. (All the Kirisuna fanatics are gonna kill me... just kidding!) I'll see you next time! Maybe? …Please?**


	3. Under Way

**AN: Hello! Back with another chapter! Like I said, I made a mistake with the story's timeline, so I'll have longer filler chapters of Asuna meeting everyone, and everybody's search for the Beast King with some misc. scenes of Kirito in between. I don't know how long this story will end up, but don't worry. As soon as K-** _ **kun**_ **gets away from the World Tree, I've got some…** _ **interesting…**_ **things planned for him.**

 **The next subject: I don't like my writing, as I'm sure I've said before. My new issue with it is the transitions and the flow of the piece! Let's be clear here. It doesn't. Flow, I mean. It reads disjointedly in some places, (at least for me) and I have to work on that. But then again, I've always been my harshest critic writing-wise.**

 **Something important I wanted you guys to know that I'm updating this as I finish the chapters, and I'm** _ **trying**_ **to update every 20th-of-the-month-or-so, but I might not always make it right on the 20th, as is the case with this chapter.** _ **Th3-Dragon-Lord**_ **asked that, and I thought it was important to let you folks know straight away. (Thanks by the way, you made me look at the posting dates of the other two, so now I have an approximate deadline. I appreciate it.)**

 **My writing, again, is in trouble. As I said last time, I honestly have no clue how to correctly write Kirito, and until I make it to his 'escape' to the rest of ALO, I won't be able to do much about it. He feels OOC to me, and probably to you guys too. I tried to explain a bit of his reaction to the pain by passing it off as his first experience with it in two years, but even** _ **that**_ **doesn't feel right… Well, at the least, it helps make more sense of it.**

 **I also changed some** _ **more**_ **things from canon, as you couldn't send voice messages without some accessory called the Ring of Angel's Whisper, let alone see the other player's face, but the ring is from the light novels that I didn't read (oops), so I guess it doesn't really matter. (Who cares about legitimacy anyway?)**

 **A longer author's note, I know I'm just dragging this on, but this the last thing I'm going to talk about. I'll try to make the fight scenes a little longer in the future, but in Asuna's case, she was already used to fighting AI/humans in SAO, and a fairy NPC isn't shaped all that different, hence the expertise in dispatching the AI. (Another way to say what I just said is 'but I have an excuse!' but that doesn't matter right now.) And in Kirito's case, well, Kirito is just plain badass.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Under Way**

乗船 - _jousen (on board)_

 _POV: Asuna Yuuki_

Asuna walked with Jay, following Yui's faint glow. Yui had volunteered to lead them through the forest and to the meeting once the two of them had crossed the bridge from the city to the mainland, and Jay had thankfully accepted. Asuna made light conversation with Jay throughout the entire trip, preferring to walk to the spot where they would meet the others instead of fly, as she couldn't be sure she wouldn't accidentally crash into a tree.

The glow disappeared behind a bend in the trail before rushing back several seconds later. "Mama!" Yui shouted when she was close enough. "The place is right there!"

Asuna watched as Jay broke out into a run, speeding down the trail. She shrugged and ran after him. "Jay! _Watashi o matte kudasai!_ Wait for me!" She chased his retreating form, getting closer when he stopped and turned back to her.

"Asuna! Hurry up! They're right here!"

"Coming!" She walked the last few paces, then groaned as he darted off again. She statistically had the higher speed stat, but Jay had more energy, being so excited to see his friends again.

She sighed as she followed him at a slower pace, sending messages to the others saying that she had learned to fly and was on her way to the World Tree.

When she finally turned the last corner on the trail, she saw Jay rushing towards the other four. _Honestly…_ Asuna thought, watching as Jay tackled his sister.

Sapphire yipped in surprise, falling to the ground in a heap. Asuna smiled at the two as Sapphire tried to stand up again, repeatedly pushing Jay away. "Get off!" Sapphire said irritatedly.

Jay happily hugged his sister for a while longer, then moved to the others, greeting them just as enthusiastically. Asuna made the last steps towards the group and helped Sapphire back to her feet. "Thanks." Sapphire mumbled, staring a hole into Jay's back. Asuna giggled at them again, prompting a responding smile from Jay and a "What's so funny?" from Sapphire.

"Nothing, really. I just was thinking that it'd be fun to have a sibling." Asuna was surprised by two _very_ different answers from the brother and sister.

Jay's response was to excitedly shout, "It's amazing!" at the top of his lungs.

Sapphire's response was considerably less upbeat. "It. Is. Pure. Hell. I don't recommend it."

"That's mean…" Jay mumbled, apparently hurt by his sister's callous comment.

Asuna grinned. "So, when do we leave for the World Tree?"

Sapphire turned to Jay. "You idiot. You told her we were going to the World Tree? Why?"

Jay was nonplussed. He tilted his head to one side, confused. "I thought we were going there…" He shrugged. "I can't help it if I was wrong though."

Sapphire put her head in her hands. "Most people have mood swings, but what do you get? Maturity swings. It's like you go from being sixteen to six in the half-second it takes me to blink." She lifted her head and shot her death glare at Jay, making sure she had his full attention before continuing. "We _are_ going to the World Tree, but only after we complete a few quests. We were going to clear everything at our current level to level up. At first it was just to get new gear, but now it's so that we can face the Beast King when the time comes." She kept going, addressing Asuna this time. "You can tag along and help with the quests if you want, but it'll take twice as long as flying on your own will take. Make your choice now."

"Oh!" Jay said, perking up. "Speaking of quests, Asuna completed one, and it was amazing!"

Sapphire smirked, then sardonically said, "That's great Jay. Tell me more about this amazing search quest later. What'd you have to do? Find a missing cat?"

"No no no, she had to fight somebody, and she was amazing! You should have been there! You absolutely destroyed that guy!" Jay went through his version of the story, roughly sketching out the rules of the battle and hitting on some key points of the action, all the while trying to elaborate and embellish the tale.

Cardinal scowled. "It doesn't sound all that amazing. All she had to do was stab some NPC four times. Anyone can do that."

"This was different! The guy was fighting so well, the quest must have been at _least_ a B Level quest, but Asuna completely wrecked him! It was great to watch!" Jay paused, and came back to his senses. "Hey, Asuna?" He looked concerned now. "Can you show me the quest notification again?"

She nodded and pulled up the screen in question. Jay walked over and scanned the data display. He stiffened, back to being serious. "Asuna, you single-handedly completed an A Level quest without much more than a scratch. On your _first day,_ no less. You're _sure_ you haven't played ALO before?"

"No I haven't!" Asuna blurted out quickly. She hesitated, then stumbled through an explanation for her expertise. "It's just that I play a lot of other fantasy games in VR!"

Evie's vigilant eyes turned on Asuna, watching her every move. "Which fantasy games?" She asked quietly.

"O-oh, you know, some of those older VR ones…" Asuna's voice awkwardly trailed away.

"I see, I see." Evie nodded a few times, her mood completely changed and her eyes practically sparkling.

Solo nudged Asuna. "Evie is into all kinds of fantasy games. She's obsessed with roleplaying and that kind of thing."

"Asuna, Asuna! What are they called?" Evie asked, the laser-like focus from before completely gone. "The games, I mean. Can you recommend some?"

Asuna tried to stammer out an answer, but Sapphire interrupted her. "I don't know about all of you, but I want to get at least _one_ quest done today. How about it Asuna? Will you come with us? It could certainly help us eventually, if you're as good as Jay says you are." She glanced at Jay, who had started arguing with Cardinal about some television show Asuna had never heard of. "Though, I'm not sure his opinion counts for much. Do you want to tag along with us?"

A cloud of gloom fell around Asuna. "I don't really know how to fly all that well yet. If I try to go there alone, you'll probably make it before I do, so I'll come with."

Sapphire sighed, but nodded. "I guess we'll move out and take my currently idiotic bro with us. I swear, it's like there are two people living in there. One that's at least a _little_ bit normal, and then one that doesn't even know what normal _means_."

"That's still mean, big sis _._ " Jay had immediately dropped his argument with Cardinal and was pouting now with his arms crossed and his nose in the air.

"Don't call me big sis! I may be older than you by ten minutes - and don't you forget it - but we're both old enough that you can just use my name! Besides, we're in VR right now. Address me by my character name."

Jay looked at the player tag for a moment, and then some sort of realization dawned on him. "OK, Saph! Or is it Saphy…" He frowned contemplatively.

Sapphire stared at him in disbelief. "Saph?! Saphy?! Jay, can you even read?!" Jay nodded happily at his sibling. Sapphire stared, sighed exasperatedly, then shook her head. "You're such an idiot. Anyway, we have to go now so we can finish the quests as fast as possible and get Asuna to the world tree. Everyone, follow me. I'll lead the way."

Asuna turned to Evie, who had returned to surveying the area, and asked the question plaguing her. "Are they always like this?"

Evie shrugged and kept scanning the forest. Solo, however, took the opportunity to answer her again. "Yes, they are. Whenever Jay slips up like this out of battle, Sapphire takes charge. It's just another one of their quirks. It works out usually. Or it fails completely and we all die. The dying part is rare, but it's happened." He shrugged, then pulled out his flightstick.

Asuna turned to the others, then noticed that they had their flightsticks out as well. She took the flightstick in her hand, then got ready to launch. Sapphire held three fingers in the air. "Three, two, one. Launch!" Sapphire shouted, shooting up into the air. Asuna, however, managed to collide with both Cardinal _and_ Solo. The three of them lost control and flew into a tree.

Jay, Evie, and Sapphire floated back down to them. " _Ano,_ Sapphire- _san_? Maybe we could go a little slower?" Asuna asked, sheepishly grinning from her upside-down position in the tree branches.

* * *

Asuna sighed and laid back on the grass. Sapphire had made her stay near the small village where the first quest started. Sapphire's reason was that Asuna hadn't proven herself reliable yet, so she would only be taken on quests level D and below. Unfortunately for Asuna, this one in particular was a C Level quest.

From what Asuna understood, the others had to take out several high level stone golems.

The quest rewarded those who completed it with a ring that granted five minutes of a doubled defense stat, which could be incredibly useful if the wearer's life was at risk. In fact, the others had already decided that it would be Cardinal who would get the ring, because even if he didn't have a shield, he could still block many strikes with the flat side of his broadsword.

 _That weapon must be a pain to lug around._ Asuna thought, pondering why anyone would want to use such a large blade. She closed her eyes, lost in thought. The artificial sun was comforting, the false heat bathing her limbs. She relaxed, and decided to take a nap.

* * *

She was woken up by the laughs of the other five returning to the town square.

"Cardinal, I can't believe you got your sword stuck in a boulder!"

"Shut up! The rock wouldn't let go!"

"I would understand if it was one of the golems that you were stuck in, but it was just a regular boulder!"

"Like I said, shut up!"

Asuna lazily sat up and yawned. "How did it go?" She sleepily said through the yawn.

"We did it!" Shouted Solo, pumping his fist into the air. "Jay ended up taking command from Sapphire halfway through because she almost died a little bit, but we did it!"

Asuna bolted wide awake. "She almost died?!" Memories of recent events flooded her still waking mind, reassuring her that she was no longer in SAO. _Death isn't permanent here._

"What's with that response? I told you it would be risky." Sapphire grumbled, her health bar a dangerous dark red color.

As Asuna watched, Sapphire put her hands together on her staff and chanted some words, sigils and symbols appearing in rings around her. She finished the chant and slammed her staff into the ground. The rings shown brighter, and the staff glimmered with a soft green light. Her health bar raised back to full as the light softly shimmered.

Asuna rushed over to Sapphire, eyes sparkling. "How did you do that?" She excitedly asked. "You just healed without using an item!"

"It's just magic." Sapphire said, jerking away from Asuna's enthusiasm.

Jay chuckled. "Calm down big sis-"

"Don't call me that!"

"-Asuna has never seen magic before. She wouldn't know how it works." Jay finished, grinning at his infuriated sister.

"You are so annoying!" Sapphire shouted at him.

"Well, I guess it's time to log off. Sapphire is yelling at Jay for no reason again." Solo said, sitting down on the hill relaxedly. He opened a window from the menu. It had both a digital and an analog clock on the display. "Yeah, it's time to go. It's almost dinner time."

Jay and Cardinal both paled. "Crap!" Jay let out before the two of the disappeared from the town's safe zone, leaving nothing behind to signal that they had been there in the first place.

Asuna looked questioningly at the other three. "They're always hungry, and both of their moms decided that they won't let them eat if they aren't at the table on time, so they've been trying to be at the table early for a while." Solo shrugged. "It doesn't help that they have some kind of sports camp for the next two days."

"Does that mean they won't be able to quest for a while?" Asuna asked.

"Right." Sapphire grumbled, still tossing glares at the place Jay had disappeared. "Which means we'll have to bring you on the quests tomorrow. It'll be fine, because I can just revive you when you die."

When _I die? Not_ if _I die?_ Asuna thought to herself, taking Sapphire's words as a challenge.

"Who holds a sports camp over winter vacation anyway?" Asuna heard Sapphire mutter.

"This is goodnight then." Solo waved at her, opened the menu, and disappeared.

Sapphire stopped glaring at Jay's patch of ground long enough to study Asuna for several moments. The other girl finally shook her head, muttered a few words along the lines of "I'll just talk to him myself," and then logged off.

Asuna stood on the hill with Evie for a while, watching her, but the archer showed no signs of leaving any time soon. Asuna quietly whispered a goodnight to the strange girl and logged off.

She waited for the AmuSphere to cool down and stop running while looked at her bedside clock. It read 3:30 AM. She sighed, remembering all of the generated and awkward Japanese the group spoke. It was going to be difficult playing with someone that lived across the world.

* * *

 _POV: Samara Blue_

Sam was honestly pissed at Jay. It had happened before, but it was never about something like _this._ Usually, her brother's crushes went away once the girls rejected him. (Or accepted then ditched the poor guy once they found out who he hung out with.) This time was different. _This_ crush had _started_ with a rejection. She knew how he felt about the new girl, because every time Asuna wasn't looking in his direction, which was often, he would sneak glances at her.

Sam could barely suppress the urge to smack the idiot. Hadn't he been listening when Asuna said she was already taken? Jay made it seem like he wanted to 'protect the new girl,' but Sam knew better. She had known him long enough. He was acting like _such_ a fool. Asuna didn't seem to notice it, but Sam could tell that it was just because Asuna already had someone in her life. The other thing that she knew was that Jay would probably be _killed_ if Asuna's 'significant other' saw Jay practically ogling her.

She and the others had all already signed off for the night after another small sidequest on their secondary accounts, so Sam had to go talk to the lovesick puppy in person. She sighed and got off of her bed. She walked out of her room and up the stairs to Jay's room.

"Jay?" She called quietly, knocking gently on the door twice. "Are you still awake?"

"Yeah." The muffled reply came after only a moment's hesitation. "Can't sleep. Unfortunately."

"Can I come in?"

"No."

"OK, I'm coming in now." She opened the door to see Jay laying on his bed, looking out the window.

He heard the door open and looked at her. "Do you ever listen to me?" She could practically taste the irritation in the air.

"At least I pay attention when you're making a mistake." She smirked.

"What do you mean, a mistake?" His eyes narrowed, ready for some other demeaning comment about his leadership.

"You are _way_ too open about your crush."

He turned bright red and hid his face in the blankets. "Shut up about that." His words were muffled once more.

She grinned devilishly and continued teasing him about his interest in Asuna. He protested several times, but she kept going until he finally burst out, "Stop it! It can't happen because she already has a boyfriend!"

She sobered quickly. "Exactly. And _you_ aren't _him._ If you meet the guy, how are you going to be able to keep your eyes off of Asuna? You'll end up killed or something. Listen to me. You've _got_ to stop it. Did you see her when she said she already had her guy? She was almost glowing. She isn't interested in you at _all._ Just let it go. You don't have a chance."

Jay was silent for several moments. "I can't help it. She's just so… Gah! I don't know! It's just something."

Sam snorted. "Yeah, that'll help you win her over. Not that you should try."

"Hey!" He said defensively. "I'm not _that_ bad." He paused, concerned. "Am I?"

She laughed. "Yep, you're terrible." She held up five fingers and pulled them down one by one as she mentioned each point. "You can't express yourself, you _never_ make the best choices IRL, you have a _terrible_ fashion sense, you don't have a _clue_ about romance, and you never give up." _Which is why I have to stop you before you start going after her._ Sam thought to herself.

Still on the defensive, he protested again. "Persistence is a _good_ thing!"

"Yes, but you aren't persistent. You're just stubborn, with a little bit of stupid mixed in."

"At least I don't insult me whenever I get the chance!" The two siblings burst out laughing. They grinned at each other. Having a sibling wasn't all bad, but Sam had to keep up appearances for the others in the club and at school. It wouldn't do if everyone knew she was soft on her little brother.

"So, are you going to stop crushing on her? If you don't, at least get it through your head that she hasn't noticed you at all." She looked into his eyes wishing, _pleading_ for him to understand.

The sudden quietness that filled the room as she watched her brother think was oppressive. It pressed in on her and made it hard to breath. "I'll think about it." He finally said, turning over and pulling his blankets back on top of him.

She stared helplessly at his covered back. "Stupid." She murmured softly. She left his doorway, trailing a hand on the wall as she walked back down the stairs to her room, and let sleep take her into its embrace.

* * *

 _POV: Kazuto Kirigaya_

Kirito hadn't slept that night. Instead, he'd been lying in wait for whoever brought breakfast. So when a guard with a tray finally came into the cage, Kirito made his move. He sprang up from the bed and smacked the white armored man in the head with the hilt of one of his swords.

The man jerked forward once, then turned around slowly. He didn't have a face, just a flat black face plate. Kirito smacked him again, but the man didn't flinch and kept reaching for the sword at his side. Kirito cursed his luck. _Not a man. A program._

He swung his sword at the program, but it had already drawn its own blade. When they clashed, Kirito realized two things. One, he had missed the sound of two swords clashing during his long weeks of confinement. Two, judging by the new twinge in his muscles due to the absence of the pain absorber, he was losing the battle of virtual muscle between himself and the guard.

Luckily for Kirito, he had a second sword. He drew it from the other makeshift sheath - which was basically a wrapping of the bedsheets attached around his waist - and quickly gutted the program. His secondary blade stuck through the figure to the other side. Kirito steeled himself against the strain and ripped the sword from the figure's side.

The entity dissolved into a flow of reddish-yellow sparkles. Kirito watched as they drifted away, nostalgically remembering SAO and his days with Asuna.

He turned to the door and smiled grimly. It was time to escape this hell made of golden bars.

* * *

Twenty guards later, Kirito was grinning madly. The AI came in groups of four, and for a veteran of two years' worth fighting artificially generated monsters, taking on four computer algorithms at one time was no problem. He hadn't even been scratched yet.

He cut through another group of them and kept going, heading for a door at the end of the corridor.

He opened it. Things went downhill from there. The door led to a long, large room. It was full of tubes and displays, along with the occasional figure - was that a giant slug? - pulling up readings and recording them. Unfortunately, there were thirty or so guards lined up in a semicircle in front of Kirito, their white uniforms creating a bright wall before him. He could see even more guards behind the first layer.

Rather than stay to get sliced into pieces by the AI, he spun to his back and ran down the hallway, shutting the door behind him.

He only made it fifteen steps down the hallway before they hammered the door open. He turned back and readied his swords. The hallway was a good place to clear out the programs. The guards could only enter the hallway two at a time, and he could handle that without any trouble. They advanced, and he whipped forward like a whirlwind. His swords flashed in and out as he dodged and deflected blows from the AIs.

The repetitive motions became almost like a mantra to Kirito. Dodge, spin, slash, jab, sidestep, block, dodge again. Before he knew it, he had come back through the doorway. Back in the hallway, the glittering dust was slowly dispersing. He shrugged and wiped the dust from his swords onto his cloak.

He wandered around the room, looking at the tubes. Each one was projecting a greenish-blue hologram of a brain from its top. He moved closer to one of them.

There were floating display labels revolving around the outside of the brain. Kirito poked one of them and watched as it expanded to a larger size. There was a graph with different levels on it. The categories read B-1 through B-20. _What are those? Drugs?_ Kirito wondered, focus straying as he looked through the other three information windows.

"Subject has seen a massive increase in B-6, and is having seizures IRL. Removal of B-6 compound from subject's test when complete suggested." Kirito read aloud. His anger at Oberon grew. _It wasn't enough to kidnap me, was it? You took others. SAO survivors, regular players maybe? You're the real monster._

He slammed his fist against the tube, one sword forgotten and dropped to the ground. One of the giant purple slugs came up behind him while he stood there.

"Which department do you belong to? I don't think I've seen you around here before. You should watch out, you know. Something has the Guardians all riled up."

Kirito's mouth curved upwards. "Yeah, something has them riled up. Me." He turned with the remaining sword in his hand and advanced on the slug.

"H-hey! Watch where you point that thing! Hold on, stop! You aren't supposed to have weapons in this room!"

Kirito scoffed. "Like I care about your protocol. You people are the ones that locked me up in here." The slug quivered once, then stilled.

"Oh. You're the boss's project. I need to tell someone about this!" Kirito lunged as the slug disappeared, stabbing through a tube instead of the purple flesh of the slug.

 _The boss's project?_ He thought to himself. _Boss, who would that be?_ A realization dawned on him. _Oberon. Crap._ _Now I can't take him by surprise when he comes back._ He turned and took off out of the room, going wherever his gut told him to. He would wipe that cocky smirk from Oberon's face.

* * *

 _POV: Sugou Nobuyuki_

The game master grinned anew as the progress reports came in from the development section working on the Feral Arc content. Everything was ready. It would only take another week or three to introduce every 'bar' of the Kirito boy's 'cage' into the game. _One week of absolute boredom and watching the boy spar with nothing. What I wouldn't give to tear into him again._ He thought, teeth clenching as he remembered the Cardinal System's file on the boy. _Married. To_ my _Asuna._ He was flooded with a red-hot anger.

His hands curled into fists, crushing the report he still held. _He deserves a fate worse than the one I've given him. He should be_ thankful.

An alert sounded on his cellphone, but he ignored it. It was probably just another message from his secretary reminding him about some piece of obscure work he had to finish.

It rang four more times before he looked at the message, finally annoyed by the blaring noise.

He read the message, then hurriedly got up from his chair and headed for his research division's work room.

"How could those incompetent fools let him escape?" He said to himself, his mind flipping through thoughts at a mile a minute.

He threw open the door to the work room and strode steadily into chaos. The workers were running back and forth in a panic, shouting at each other and yelling about the escapee.

"Quiet!" Sugou shouted, silencing the disorder with the yell and a glare. "What _exactly_ is going on here?" His voice caustically cut through the air like a hot knife through butter.

"S-sir!" Someone said, fear coloring their tone. "The subject escaped!"

Sugou stared at the crowd in distaste. "You let _my_ prisoner escape, and the only thing you say in your notice is that you _imbeciles_ 'made a mistake,' that you 'need help.' Remind me to get rid of a few of you later." There was a nervous chuckle from someone in the back of the gathering, and Sugou sighed. "Starting with him."

The small laugh died. The new head-of-division spoke then. "According to the reports from the scientists inside right now, the subject is cutting through the Guardians with a sword. I wonder who gave him those?" Her piercing gaze jabbed into Sugou. He made a mental note to give her a pay raise. She could _definitely_ scare others into submission. He tuned back in as she continued. "Regardless, it will take more than just the Guardians to subdue him unless he makes it into the main trunk section, which is technically impossible. Then again, he could always manage to fly off of a branch."

Sugou immediately gave an order to a nearby group of programmers. "Clip his wings! If he can't fly at all, he won't be able to leave." He directed his next order to the head. "Get a team together. If the Guardians can't capture him, we'll send some less predictable opponents his way."

The woman grinned, almost as maliciously as Sugou had earlier. "Can I nominate myself?"

Sugou smiled back, taking a nonsensical pride in the woman. "Why not?"

A programmer called out a few minutes later, just as the head-of-division came back. "Sir! We've clipped his wings!"

The lightly tapped his shoulder. "Sir, the team is ready to dive into VR and recapture the prisoner."

Sugou laughed loudly. "Perfect!" _They won't have any trouble. The boy has spent two years fighting monsters, then Kayaba, and Kayaba was never exactly the sporty type of person. I doubt that scum will be able to take down even_ one _of the team._ Sugou thought. His grin spread wider. "Let's catch this worm." He murmured before nodding at the head.

She nodded back at him and left the room, heading towards her AmuSphere.

"They'll get the dirty rat. He has nowhere to go anyway." Sugou said to himself. He sat back in a wheeled chair, leaving the employee standing nearby it with no place to sit. He leaned back and rotated happily from side to side. He would make his prisoner _suffer,_ he decided. _If revenge is a dish best served cold, this dish had better be frozen solid._

* * *

 **AN: Yeah, I know it's shorter than the last one-I think-but I've been writing in bits and pieces lately. What with finals coming up next week, I haven't been able to focus on this. I'll be more productive when I get out of school for the summer. I'm going back and fixing mistakes again, but I'll probably be doing that after I post every chapter anyway. Answering (and now acknowledgement) of reviews begins now!**

 **Review Responses :**

 **GameLord The Hitman:**

Thank you! As you probably saw earlier, 'Saphy' is going to be trying to talk Jay out of chasing after Asuna. I'm not sure if I'm going to let her convince him yet. I'm thinking that I'll just let this play out however I end up writing it. (Like I said, I write as I go, so when people ask about future plans, I usually have to decide on the spot.)

 **VergilChan:**

Really? How'd you know I was planning something like that? I was thinking maybe the Elucidator because of the way I'm going to gift it to Kirito. Thanks for the reassurance, I was worrying about being attacked because of that. Then again, this means that you all are just Kirisuna _fans_ , not _fanatics._ There's a difference, I think. As in, one religiously tries to make everything a Kirisuna paring, and blames everything that does anything otherwise as 'an ungodly mess,' and the other just has Kirisuna as their favorite. An abstract thought here: Kirisuna is definitely a better pairing name than Kazusuna. Sorry that my reply is all over the place, I'm running on three hours of sleep right now.

 **Death update (Guest):**

People keep guessing my ideas, and it's making me a little nervous. I kinda _was_ thinking about writing it that way, with K- _kun_ constantly being hunted down by people, and eventually Jay & Co. Then again, that might get boring to write and read about, so I'll have him settle down a few times. Actually, I suppose that it's good people are suggesting the stuff I was already planning, 'cause that means I'm doing things right.

 **St. Jimmy of Jingletown:**

Sorry that I didn't answer the first time! I couldn't see your reviews for some reason, so I'm just answering them both now.

First of all, I have no clue whether I'll end up writing the Sleeping Knights into the story. I wasn't planning on it, but it might end up happening eventually.

And for your second review: Yeah, that was one of the mistakes I made. Thanks for asking, so now I can excuse myself from blame. Let's just say that the Cardinal System isn't happy with Sugou and decided to give Asuna a head start? Yeah, that sounds good. I appreciate the input though! It let's me see plot holes and fill them in later on!

 **Other comments I read and enjoyed :**

Chapter 1: _Hanna Kurosaki-chan, TheGallopingCupcake, PirateQueen890, UragiriNoTeme (Guest)._

Chapter 2: _Th3-Dragon-Lord, Dragon Fern, bookgirl18._

 **Yes, I am aware that I probably made mistakes. I'm just either too lazy or too unmotivated to fix them right now. I'll do it later. Maybe. Hey, before I go, let me tell you something. If I ever forget to update on the 20th, and it's been a week or two, just PM me a time or two. I don't want to forget this story any more than you guys want me to, trust me. I would like to get off of the right foot by actually** _ **finishing**_ **this, regardless of any other story ideas floating around in my head.**


	4. Collision

**AN: Before you start to read the real story, (or maybe you already did), I have a few things to say. Please remember that those translation thingies after each chapter title aren't EXACTLY what the symbol means, nor is it for sure what the romanized version is. There can be more than one meaning. An example, you say? The one in this chapter. ' _Shoutotsu_ ' came up when I looked up the Japanese symbol/romanized version of the English word 'clash,' but somewhere else said that it meant collision. A few somewhere-elses, actually. What I write is generally one or two of the symbol/romanized version's meanings. (That I've found). Yes, it means that, but it doesn't _only_ mean that.**

 **By the way, more (possible) canonical changes! I don't know if ALO had a level cap for skills, but let's say that it did! Hooray!**

 **I want to thank _Guest_ , who pointed out that Asuna actually _does_ have a sibling. He completely slipped my mind, but that should be fixed by now. I'm also going to preemptively thank _perfectshade_ for talking with me and giving me a few ideas for the future.**

 **Last but not least, the spells. I don't really want to make up English words for all the ALO spells, and I don't know how to write the offshoot of Old Norse the ALO spell system canonically uses, so I'm just going to basically say something about chanting. Lame, I know, but that's better than trying to write the word 'skjóta' every time the spell is about throwing something.**

 **IMPORTANT! I'm going back and writing the OCs out of the picture. _Sonochu_ has brought, ummm… actually, quite a few flaws to my attention, and I think he's right about Jay and co. I originally stuck the OCs in to teach Asuna how to fly, then used them for the quest, then as guides, (comic relief etc.) but they shouldn't be all that important in the grand scheme of things. I decided to think ahead, to see if I could figure out a way to ditch them later on in the story, and I couldn't find a way to do it without making everyone wonder why they were even there in the first place. So, I'm going back and cutting them out. Flying and the quest can be taken care of with the typical 'unnecessary' tutorials of an MMO, and since Yui can supposedly act as a navigation pixie, it's strange for Asuna to need someone to guide her.**

 **I'm going to post the chapter four that I had, then go back and edit the other chapters. Btw, forget about the 20th. The laptop apparently broke while the family was on vacation, so I couldn't figure out how to post this chapter for a while. I wrote this last part from my phone, and I'm posting from the library. For the next long while I'll be mostly fixing edits until I can get either A) a new computer or B) another opportunity to visit the library. Thanks for your patience, since I said '20th,' and I'm pretty much a month late.**

* * *

 **Chapter Four: Clash**

衝突 - _shoutotsu (collision/clash)_

 _POV: Kazuto Kirigaya_

Kirito had almost been having _fun_ blasting through the Guardians until he ran into another one of the brain-tube rooms. As soon as he entered, the door shut behind him and a 'locked' notification appeared on it. In the midst of the brain-tubes stood five figures arranged in a circle. He tensed, seeing the relaxed and nonchalant attitude of the five. These were actual _players_ , presumably some lackeys of Oberon.

"Hey, miss? What did I volunteer for again?" One of the men asked a taller woman.

"We're supposed to recapture one of the Boss's escaped _toys_." The woman said, absent-mindedly twirling an odd looking drumstick in one hand as she responded.

Kirito barely resisted the urge to shout a protest at being labeled a toy at the top of his lungs. It looked like they hadn't noticed him yet, so he decided to take the opportunity to sneakily advance towards them. Well, he tried to take the opportunity. Instead he tripped over a cord he hadn't noticed and fell in a clatter of swords and clinking metal, letting out a pained 'oof' as he hit the floor.

The five turned to him in surprise. The earlier man suddenly blurted out "It's him, isn't it? The person we're after!"

The woman started to answer the man, but Kirito interrupted. "No, you've got it wrong! I'm just one of those Summer interns. I come here every Saturday to help with the work!"

The tall woman that Kirito decided was in charge of the other four raised an eyebrow. "It's not Saturday."

His grin faltered, then he tried again. "I meant Sunday."

The eyebrow went even higher, nearly disappearing into the woman's bright red hair. In fact, most of the clothes she wore were a similar shade of red. "It's not Sunday, and it doesn't feel like Summer anyway. Winter just started, Mr. Prisoner."

He shrugged. "At least I tried." He grabbed his swords and raised them in an 'X' just in time to block an axe strike from the man who had been speaking before. He had charged Kirito the moment the woman called him 'Mr. Prisoner.'

The man blinked at the swords even as he pushed his weight against Kirito. "I thought you said he had _one_ sword, not two!" He yelled over his shoulder. The second of split focus was all it took for Kirito to disengage one blade and gut the man, just as he had done earlier with the guard in his cage. The man looked taken aback by the large amount of damage and the bleed effect on his avatar. "What the hell kind of prisoner _are_ you?" He asked Kirito, health draining quickly.

Kirito put a fist on his chin as if in thought, still tightly gripping his blade. "I don't know, maybe you should have thought about that before going up against a level 96 player."

"B-but Alfheim doesn't have any levels! It's a skill based game!" The man protested.

Kirito laughed and momentarily ducked to avoid a trio of thrown daggers from another player headed towards them. "I'm going to let you in a little secret. I don't really care." The man opened his mouth to say something more, but Kirito kicked him away in the direction of the player closing in on Kirito just before the first player shattered, leaving a ghostly flame behind.

The second player rolled out of the way of the body while it was still flying and shot into the air.

 _That's right_ , Kirito thought to himself, running in a zig-zag pattern towards the still airborne fairy to avoid the daggers still being thrown by his opponent. _I have wings now._ He ran in a straight line for several steps and tried to launch off of the ground the way he'd seen the other fairy do it. He ended up falling onto his face again.

"Really?!" He shouted angrily, rolling out of the way of yet another dagger. "Why give me wings if I can't use them?" He pushed himself to his feet and rushed towards the flying fairy once more.

The player seemed to always be _just_ out of his reach. _That's it._ He decided, annoyed by the multitude of glancing scratches and burning cuts the daggers had gifted him. _I'll have to use a skill._ He put himself into a strange pose and loudly shouted "VORPAL STRIKE!" at the top of his lungs. He stabbed forward with one sword, expecting a blue-ish purple beam of light to extend from his sword and impale the fairy. He only received a weird look from the fairy and a dagger to the gut for his trouble.

"Uh.. ah.. eh? Ehhhhhh?!" He stared at the still intact fairy, then his sword, and back and forth several more times before remembering that, just as the skills list full of question marks had suggested early on, there were no sword skills in the world the axe-man had called 'Alfheim.' He grimaced and dropped one rusty sword as the pain from the dagger registered. He grabbed it and yanked it quickly out. It was a bittersweet victory, the resulting pain of removing it nearly outweighing the benefit of not having a dagger in his stomach.

Another projectile barely missed his foot, reminding him of the situation he was in. He picked up his sword and attempted to attack the _extremely_ irritating player with the daggers, but he was stopped by a woman with a cutlass-style sword blocking his path. She looked like she was cosplaying as a pirate, the brown trenchcoat, pants and a pair of boots helping the impression, but the odd-looking tri-corner hat on her head completing the look.

"You want to get any further, you'll have to fight _me_ first." She said, baring her teeth in an almost-snarl.

He growled back at her and bared _his_ teeth. It must have been more effective, as the woman squeaked in response and backed away a few steps. A flash caught his eye, and he looked at the status bar that shone near her head. He noted that an effect called 'Fear' had appeared. He subconsciously shrugged. He would study that more later, but at the moment he still had three fairies to defeat. _Three?_ He thought to himself. _I thought there were four…_ He heard a footstep behind him, immediately spun away from cutlass-woman and brought his sword down, narrowly avoiding an attack and cutting off the arm of a fairy who had tried to stab him in the back with a wickedly sharp knife. "That wasn't very polite." He told her before whirling back to face the other three, a blade flat across her back, forcing her to move with him.

He ducked behind her in time to avoid two daggers from the annoying fairy. They hit the assassin instead of Kirito, bringing her health bar into the yellow zone. He winced in sympathy, remembering the pain that just _one_ dagger had inflicted. Then he stopped feeling sympathetic, also remembering that these players most likely had their pain absorbers working full blast. He cursed Oberon in his head. Again.

The cutlass-wielding woman tried to slice at him but he dodged the strike, letting the woman cut the rest of the lady-assassin's arm off at the shoulder. The assassin fell over, and cutlass-woman instinctively crouched down to apologize. Kirito didn't let that happen. He spun into his swing, one sword following somewhat later than the other, and let the combined blows take the woman down to one-third of her health.

She gasped in surprise and made to stand and fight back, but his kick pushed her back to the floor. _A sword isn't the only thing someone can use in combat._ He absentmindedly thought to himself as his next blow connected. She dissolved into another flaming orb, just as the first player had. _What use is that?_ Kirito wondered, pondering the flame. _Is it just so you know where they die? Is there a revival item, like the one from the Christmas quest in SAO?_ The thought was quickly pushed out of his focus as another projectile nicked his arm. Annoyed, he speedily put a sword in his makeshift cloth sheath in exchange for one of the discarded daggers on the ground. It was time to see how good his throwing skill was in this world. He drew his arm back, and threw the weapon at the fairy.

To put it simply, it amazing. During SAO, though he was mainly a swordsman, he had managed to level his throwing skill up to a mighty 967/1000. The thrown projectile hurtled straight for the fairy, and lodged itself in the player's shoulder. The player spun, unbalanced by the impact, and Kirito took his chance. He barely managed to 'unsheathe' his second sword as he raced towards the fairy struggling to regain his balance. He jumped onto a tube and then leaped at the fairy. The player brought his eyes back to Kirito just in time to see two blades rushing straight towards him.

The player managed to dodge the first sword, but not the second. The strike batted him out of the air, sending the player's dark and slim form towards the ground. Kirito landed and headed towards the nearly dead fairy. A single stab to the chest, and the fairy's body disappeared. This player left behind a different colored orb. In this orb, a dark purple fire pulsated out from a yellow core.

Kirito turned back to the center of the room to see the woman still merely raising an eyebrow. He brushed off his suspicions and walked steadily towards her. She didn't have any weapon he could see other than the drumstick, and he didn't expect a drumstick to do any harm to him. The mumbling she was doing didn't seem to serve any purpose either.

He finally realized what was going on when she pointed the drumstick at him and shouted the last syllable of her chant. The drumstick - no, the wand - glowed a shade of orange, and out of its tip came a roaring stream of fire. He was taken completely unawares, the flames sending universal pain signals throughout his body. He roared by accident, an unfamiliar rage filling him as the burning heat covered his body. He walked towards her, raising both swords in another 'X' shape. When he got closer, he swung both of them downwards in their respective courses.

The flames disappeared, leaving the perplexed woman in front of Kirito staring wide-eyed at her wand as it split into three separate pieces. Her surprise left her guard open. He slashed at her with one blade, the other still by his side. It cut across her face as she fell back to the ground in surprise and shock, leaving an open gash that glowed red-orange. He raised his sword to strike again, but he felt a sudden pain in the side of his neck and a weight on his back.

"Just because I'm missing an arm doesn't mean I'm useless." The assassin whispered into one of Kirito's pointed ears. His eyes shot to his status bar just in time to see the 'paralysis' icon appear. _Remind me to cut off_ both _arms next time_. He slumped over and hit the ground, forced to close his eyes as the system did its work.

* * *

 _POV: Sugou Nobuyuki_

Sugou's day was _not_ going as well as it could have. First, his prisoner had escaped. Things had started looking better as the head-of-division gathered a team to capture him, but there was an unfortunate consequence to underestimating his captive. According to her report, three players with maxed out stats second only to his - and apparently the prisoner's - had fallen victim to his captive, and the other two had been injured. Even the head-of-division had been unable to bring the boy to less than ninety percent health with her powerful fire magic.

The only lucky thing about the event was that one of the task force had thought to bring a weapon with a paralysis effect. Still, it was a blow to his pride that none of the team had escaped unscathed. His first act upon their return was to dismiss the three that had died facing the boy. His second was to give the head that pay raise he had been thinking about. He decided to give the other woman that survived one as well. After all, her back-up plan had kept the boy from defeating all of them and wreaking havoc upon the research facilities within the World Tree.

"Nice work bringing him back," Sugou said to the two of them, finally standing up from the poor employee's chair that he had been sitting in. It dawned on him that he still didn't know the head-of-division's name. Glancing at the nametag all of RECTO's employees were required to wear, he read her name aloud. "Aika Shinomiya. At this point, I think I can tell you that you and this team member you picked out will be very important in future operations such as this one. Consider yourself praised."

He watched as Shinomiya stretched and sat in the chair he had just vacated, making the owner of the chair slump in despair. (They were beginning to doubt that they would ever be able to sit again.) "I'm glad to be of service," she said, crossing one leg over the other, "But what exactly did that prisoner do to get your attention?"

He laughed to himself, then said, "Oh, fine. I'll tell you. This boy is the one who tainted my Asu-" He caught himself. He wasn't going to tell this woman that, he reminded himself. He wasn't yet sure he could trust her to keep a secret. "He was one of the players in the final boss raid within the Sword Art project. I wanted to see how the quality of one SAO player would compare to the quality of all of the ALO players. It'll be an interesting opportunity to collect data, don't you think?" He said, giving her the same BS excuse he had given the other workers that had asked him about his reason for choosing the boy.

She scrutinized him for a second, trying to determine whether or not he was telling her the entire story. Eventually, she shrugged and said one last thing: "Anything else I should know?"

"Nothing at the moment!" He was grinning when he told her to leave, still grinning when he walked back to his office, still grinning when he put on the AmuSphere, still grinning when he walked through the hallways of the World Tree. He only stopped smiling when he walked up to the boy's new cage, deep inside the world tree.

It was less than a fourth of the size of the other cage, only allowing the boy in the center space to move six inches in any direction. "This is the cage you deserved from the start." He said aloud, coldly glaring at the sleeping figure. "I don't know why I bothered to try to make you comfortable. You aren't truly another royal. You are merely a _beast_ , a monster below my notice. At least I'll only have to deal with taking care of you for another two weeks at most." He viciously kicked the cage. The boy flinched when his shelter shook, but didn't wake up. "Dirty scum." Sugou spat on the boy, thanking his past self for deciding to leave the odd aesthetic feature in the game. It had its uses.

He kicked the cage again for good measure, then left the room. He didn't see the answering glare full of hatred being sent his way when the 'sleeping' boy opened his eyes. He didn't see the five people separately making their ways to Alne, the city beneath the World Tree. He certainly didn't see a girl crying for her 'sleeping' 'brother' in a hospital. Not that he would've cared much if he had seen any of them. He was Sugou Nobuyuki, soon-to-be CEO of RECTO Progress, and he was on top of the world. The virtual one, at least. Being a Game Master certainly had its perks.

* * *

 _POV: Asuna Yuuki_

Asuna grinned at Sapphire as the other girl stared open-mouthed at the sparkling dust still falling. "Asuna, what was that?" Sapphire said. She sounded dazed, like she was still trying to comprehend what she had seen.

The group, minus Cardinal and Jay, had already moved on to the next quest when they logged on. Asuna had gotten into the game a little after seven in the morning, but for the others, it was already three in the afternoon. Apparently the group lived in a time zone that ran _sixteen_ hours after her own. Scheduling the log-on times would be quite difficult in the future.

"Nothing important. That wasn't really my best work." This was true. Asuna had stumbled and gotten scratched by one of the wolverine-like creature's claws during her skirmish with the AI. She absentmindedly studied her health bar. It hadn't gone down all that much, so she was still almost at maximum health.

A sparkling green effect flew off of her body. She stiffened, then shook her head. It was only Sapphire healing her again. She smiled at the grumbling girl in thanks, then asked a question that had been on her mind for a while. "How do you do that? I've been curious for the longest time."

Sapphire raised an eyebrow. "Jay told you yesterday. It's magic. Didn't you take a magic course from one of the trainers in the city?"

Asuna froze and looked to the side. "Y-yeah, of course I did!"

Sapphire scoffed. "Like hell you did. It's your own fault." Asuna pleadingly stared at her, doing the best impression of a puppy that she could. Sapphire didn't take long to break down. "OK, OK! I'll do it. I'll teach you how to use magic."

Asuna raised an eyebrow of her own. She had only wanted an explanation of how it worked, but if she could do it herself… she let the thought drift in her head before tuning back in to Sapphire's words. "...words mean something different than the others, and can change the effect of the spell. Magic in ALO is all about memorization. You can probably go to any old site nowadays and find a list of ALO spells that anyone can use in the game. All players have the ability to use magic, but some people either find the process bothersome, they're too lazy, or they just don't want to be a magic-wielder."

She was only half-listening when Sapphire decided to test her. "Asuna? Are you paying attention?" She shook herself and nodded hurriedly. "Really? Fine then. Tell me how you would cast a group healing spell that would get three members from half health to full."

Asuna opened her mouth, then shut it.

"That's what I thought." Sapphire sighed. "Let's just start with a basic spell memorization. This is the most basic healing spell in the game. It can only heal one person at a time, and it's more like a regeneration spell. All races can use it, so you should be able to too. This is the chant you need:" Sapphire chanted several words that Asuna didn't recognize, and when she was done, she pointed her staff in Evie's direction. The green glow surrounded the scratched Evie, (she had accidentally hit a tree while trying to land), and then disappeared after five seconds.

"...what?"

"Did you even listen?!"

"It's hard! You have to do something like that slowly, or it doesn't work!"

"It would've worked if you'd listened!"

Asuna sighed. She breathed in deeply, held the breath for a few seconds, then let it out. "OK. Let's try that again. What are the words?"

The two girls went over the syllables one by one, reviewing every time Asuna missed one or forgot how to pronounce it. Finally, Sapphire decided that Asuna was ready to try and cast the spell.

"Here, I'll scratch myself so you can try it out." She said before taking a small shortsword from her inventory. She drew it across her arm, taking away a miniscule portion of her hitpoints.

Asuna readied herself, raising the practice wand Sapphire had just handed her. She closed her eyes and started her chant. While she chanted, she felt a light draining sensation coming from her body's core. She opened her eyes to see Sapphire coated in a dark purple light.

"Asuna. You cast the wrong spell. This is poison." Sapphire said loudly, staring at her gradually decreasing hitpoints. "You messed up on the third syllable. It's pronounced 'thu,' not 'su.'"

Asuna nervously laughed and tried to cast the spell again.

"Still poison!" Sapphire said again, watching as the effects stacked.

On Asuna's third try, she correctly cast the healing spell. Sapphire whistled appreciatively as her HP went from the still-draining 90% to 100%. Asuna's magic level was still mostly nonexistent, so the poison spells hadn't been able to do much damage. However, this healing spell was reliant on the target's HP instead of the caster's magic level, healing 10% health each time it was cast.

"Nice job Asuna! You've officially become a sorceress!" The girls grinned at each other. "Although, now that I think about it, we should probably get back to the others." Sapphire put the shortsword back inside her inventory just as Solo poked his head into the creatures' den.

"Sapphire, I thought you said you wanted to get at least three quests completed?"

"We're still good on time. Asuna completed the quest faster than I planned for." Sapphire yelled to Solo over her shoulder. "It freed up some extra minutes, so I taught her a spell."

Asuna nervously tapped Sapphire's shoulder. " _Ano_ , Sapphire- _san_?" Asuna spoke quietly. "Can you go over the words with me again?"

Sapphire's brow twitched. "Y-you forgot already?"

"It's hard! I'm not used to this!"

She sighed. "I'll just reteach you on the way to the next quest."

Asuna's mood brightened again at the prospect of action. "What kind of quest is it? Are we fighting giant worms? Trolls? Dragons!?"

"We are going to be searching for a missing wedding ring." Sapphire deadpanned.

Asuna's vision of an exciting adventure shattered. "Why?" She asked, confused.

"If we're going to leave, we kind of need to go right now…" Solo's voice dwindled away as he walked further from the den's entrance.

"Let's go. I'll tell you on the way." Asuna grumbled her many complaints as she followed Sapphire out of the area. "So, first off, we're finding that wedding ring because of the quest reward. The NPC that lost it gives the finders a special pair of boots."

"What do they do?"

"I don't know. We just know that the quest reward is a pair of special boots. That's all that Solo could find online." Sapphire took out her flightstick and launched off of the ground, making Asuna take off after her.

"Slow down!" She called as she urged her wings to go faster. She drew even with the sorceress before long, easily flying next to her. "Why did you fly off like that?" Asuna asked the girl.

Sapphire looked at Asuna and nearly jumped out of her skin. "How'd you get here! I'm going as fast as I can using the flightstick!" Her eyes dropped to Asuna's hands. "Asuna? H-h-how are you doing that?"

Asuna looked down to her hands as well. She didn't see anything that she was doing wrong. "What do you mean? I'm not doing anything."

"That's my point! You aren't holding the flightstick!"

"Oh." Asuna shrugged. "I don't know, but doesn't that mean I'm not supposed to be flying right now?"

Sapphire looked at her as if expecting her to fall out of the sky at any moment. "Yeah. You're supposed to be falling to your death."

They both waited several seconds for Asuna's avatar to remember gravity, but for some reason it didn't happen. Asuna waved her limbs around, testing to see if she would still be able to stay afloat in the clouds. Again, nothing happened.

"What's it like to not need the stick?" Evie suddenly said softly.

"It's wonderful…" Asuna was in awe of the freedom it gave her. She had already felt freed from everything by the usual sensation of flight, but this was a whole new level of excitement. "It's feels like I can do anything, like I could fly forever…"

"Sounds amazing. It's too bad that we _can't_ fly forever." Solo said, disrupting Asuna's _second_ fantasy of the day.

"What!?" She yelped, falling towards the ground. She willed herself back to the others, ignored Sapphire's snickering, and waited for Solo to explain himself.

"In ALO, there's a time limit on flying. Haven't you noticed that we always stop for breaks every ten minutes?"

"I noticed, but I always thought that Cardinal was just going to get a snack."

Sapphire failed to hide a laugh when Asuna finished talking. "H-he usually does, but a-anyway, do you want to try that spell again?"

"Won't it be hard while we're flying?"

Sapphire blinked. "It shouldn't be that hard if you remember the words and do the chant." Asuna sighed and submitted to Sapphire's magic lessons. At least one good thing would come out of listening to the lecture. She would be able to heal as long as she had the energy she needed.

"Oh, and by the way, be on your guard for the next few quests."

"Why is that?" Asuna asked, curiosity piquing. _Maybe this day won't be too boring after all_.

"We'll have to swing into Spriggan territory for these quests, and some Spriggans don't take kindly to people from the other races invading. Spriggans specialize in illusion magic and ambushing, so we'll need to be extra careful."

Asuna didn't really understand, but she nodded anyway. _What kind of monster is a 'Spriggan' supposed to be?_

* * *

 **AN: This is where I cut this off. I hope I eventually manage to address the things I missed in previous chapters when I go back and edit, but for now updated are postponed, only edits! I haven't abandoned this story, thanks for asking, but it might take some time to get back on track.**

 _ **Review Responses:**_

 **Th3-Dragon-Lord:**

Yeah, Sugou is kind of an idiot. I'm planning to rewrite him a _little_ less stupid, but it's in his character, so I've got to make sure he misses a few things. Possibly important things.

 **VergilChan:**

This response is going to look a little similar to the one above. Yes, Sugou is a bit of an idiot. Kirito is now level 96, and has maxed out most of the combat skills he has equipped. Though some of them may not carry over to ALO correctly, the basic principle is the same: he's pretty much going to own whoever gets near him. Unless he forgets to cut both the arms off.

 **Sonochu:**

I don't really think we can carry out a conversation together here, so I'll just respond by PM. It's been awhile since you reviewed, but a PM'd do it more justice than a response right here. If you'll excuse me for just a moment, I'll go post the chapter, and… oh, wait. The rest of the AN. Just give me a second, I'll be right with you. (ehhh... I sound kinda rude. Sorry, I just want to talk a bit!)

 _ **Other Appreciated Messages:**_

 _nburr16, Sn0wk1tty (Guest), (Guest). I think that's it, so if I forgot someone else, sorry._

 **What else… Ah! I was thinking of posting some concepts of other ideas that I've already written some stuff for, but that isn't really what Fanfiction is for. That's more for, ermmm… I don't actually know where, exactly. Anyway, I'm just doing this 'cause I'm nervous about how this new news is going to be received. Plus it was my first time writing an actual 'fight' scene. (No, I'm not going to count the guards.) Bye! I'll be back here once I finish editing! Probably..**

 **K! I think I fixed everything the 'clear formatting' button erased, but I might've missed something. Don't press that button. Seriously, it made everything the same. Last time it fixed everything, but this time I had to re-format everything.. Actually, come to think of it, I should've just copy-pasted all over again...**


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